A string of incomprehensible letters to Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail and a suspicious phone call allegedly tied to them led to the evacuation of the Hanceville City Hall and Post Office Wednesday.

According to Hanceville Police Chief Bob Long, City Clerk Tania Wilcox received a suspicious call Wednesday morning inquiring what time mail would be delivered to the city hall.

Wilcox said she received the call around 10 a.m.

“The caller asked if this was Hanceville and if the mayor was Kenneth Nail,” Long said. “He then said we would be on the Internet once the mail was delivered.”

The suspicious call prompted the evacuation of both buildings.

“More often than not, these kind of things are unfounded,” Long said. “But we have to be prepared. The one time we don’t take something like this seriously something devastating could happen.”

In order to ensure the safety of the city and its employees, the Hanceville Police Department and Cullman County’s Sheriff Office set up perimeters around both buildings.

The Huntsville Police Department bomb squad was called to the scene to investigate the mail alongside the postal inspector. After a search of the unopened mail at both buildings, there was no dangerous content found.

“I apologize for the inconvenience,” Nail said. “I always put safety first. I appreciate the Huntsville guys coming out here, and I’m glad everything turned out OK.”

This is the first phone call of this nature for Hanceville, but Nail has received suspicious letters in the past. However, none of those letters contained threats.

“I’ve been receiving letters for six to eight months,” Nail said. “The letters ramble on so much they don’t really make sense. They’ve never been seen as a threat, but a phone call like this is totally different.”

Both buildings were reopened Wednesday afternoon after responders cleared the outgoing mail, but not before more letters were found.

“The same type of letters that the mayor has been receiving were in the mail today,” Long said.

Both Nail and Long could not disclose the contents of the letters because of an on-going investigation by the FBI.

“We’ve turned over the phone number to the FBI,” Long said.

Nail added that business at the city hall and post office would return to normal unless the investigation yielded any threatening results.

Zach Winslett can be contacted at zwinslett@cullmantimes.com