The first time Jackson found a so-called Schuylkill Note it was hidden between hot dog buns he had purchased from a major grocery chain in August 2023.
The creepy notes - which are typically 19-line messages filled with gibberish conspiracy theories - have been plaguing the Northeast of the US for years, and are named after the Pennsylvania town they were first spotted in.
'I had heard of them before, so I was excited that I found one but really creeped out that it was in my food,' Jackson, who did not give his last name, told the Daily Mail.
After calling the store in Schuylkill County to report the discovery, the woman who answered sounded surprised. But when Jackson returned to exchange the item, another employee told him a very different story.
'She said that they find the notes all the time,' he said. 'We got our exchanged item and checked it off as a weird, once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.'
But it wasn't. Two weeks later, Jackson stumbled upon another note stashed inside a box of breakfast fig bars sold by a different store in the same area.
'We did the same thing, copied it, called the store and they said to come in,' the Auburn resident, 42, told the Daily Mail. Once there, he received the same message from staff: this happens all the time.
Since finding the first note in 2023, he and his wife have found around 50 Schuylkill Notes, especially on hiking trails in the county.
The notes have been popping up on hiking trails and in food packaging since 2019 and continue to appear today.
They are mainly found in Pennsylvania, but a few have been picked up in New York, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia, a public Google Maps showed.
From Walmarts and Wegmans to an exhausting list of nature trails, these little notes consist of 19 lines of text and appear to be written in fragments consisting of conspiracies about JFK, secret societies, and random nonsense.
'SECRET SOCIETIES (SS) ties to terror' m/shoot'gs/riots...r not report'd; JFK warn'd of SS,' one note found along the Appalachian Trial started.
'A secret sign sys unites SS. SS' symbs. ties to Saturn, god of TIME/ Lord o/t Rings: Toyota's rgs, Nazis' black sun...' it continued.
Most notes have been left in clear packaging sealed with a paper clip. Some have been thumbtacked to trees and others to logs.
People have also reported finding them inside Crystal Light flavor packets, boxes of Velveeta mac and cheese and candy and chocolate bar wrappers.
Many notes are found on the trails near Schuylkill. Most are left in clear packaging sealed with a paper clip. Some have been thumbtacked to trees and others to logs.
'Nothing is done about it,' said Jackson, who is now a moderator on a Schuylkill Note Reddit forum.
Since finding the first note in 2023, he and his wife have found around 50 in total - many on hiking trails around the county.
'Once you know the trick to spotting them, you can find one on most hiking trails in the southern Schuylkill County area,' Jackson, a photographer who often hikes and mountain bikes, said.
But how the notes end up where they do and who is planting them remains a mystery - with even local law enforcement still in the dark.
Neither Police Chief, Jeff J. Walcott, of the Schuylkill Haven Borough Police, nor Sheriff Joseph G. Groody, of the Schuylkill County Sheriff's Office, had heard of the notes when contacted by the Daily Mail.
'This is the first time I've ever heard of this,' Groody said. 'I have no idea what you're talking about.'
Similarly, Walcott told Daily Mail: 'Our police department has not received any of these types of reports... I do not have any incidents reported or experiences with the mentioned random notes.'
However, despite filing no police reports, many people have taken to social media to reveal their findings. The notes even have their own channel on Reddit.
Tim Howe, 42, who lives in Montgomery County, a neighboring county, found his first note in March 2022.
He was hiking in the Appalachian Trail near Hamburg and discovered the message in a fire pit. A few hundred yards away, he found another placed on a rock near a tree.
'To be honest, I was a bit creeped out,' Howe told the Daily Mail.
He was then left frightened when 'two guys rolled up' and wondered if they were responsible since the trails were usually empty on weekdays. But he later learned they were conservationists.
After learning about the outbreak of notes on Reddit, he has since been on the hunt for more - and found two more notes near Astyra Park just last week.
He claimed he has noticed patterns in when the notes appear. Often there will be a sudden spike, and then a period of months before another collection surfaces.
'I honestly don't know [why],' the dog sitter told the Daily Mail.
There are many theories about who the note culprit could be - with one of the most plausible being that they work in a distribution center, which would explain why so many have been found inside packaging. But as of yet, there is no serious suspect in the frame.
Schuylkill Notes - named after the Pennsylvania town they were first spotted in - have been popping up on random trails and in food packaging since 2019
From Walmarts and Wegmans to nature trails, these little notes consist of 19 lines of text and appear to be written in fragments consisting of conspiracies about JFK, secret societies and random nonsense
'To me, it's just littering,' Howe said.
There seems to be no public threat to safety. Neither Howe or Jackson were concerned about the prospect the notes could be laced with anything.
Jackson, however, worries that the note creator, who many presume to be mentally ill, could go on to carry about a more sinister act.
'There was fear because the person doing it was exposing a vulnerability in the supply chain,' he told the Daily Mail. 'If they could slip a note in that easily, what else could they do to the products?'
The FDA launched an investigation into the notes after receiving more than 20 complaints over four years, including from Jackson's wife, about the cryptic notes being found in food packaging.
All 20 complaints came from residents in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area.
'We were told the FBI was involved. We would periodically follow up and one day we were told the case is closed. We followed up again and were told the same thing,' Jackson said.
Ultimately the FDA was also unable to do anything since there had been no food contamination and deferred to local jurisdictions.
'FDA investigated the matter and determined, based on the product/packaging process and various plant locations, that these localized incidents are more suited for complaint referrals to the jurisdiction of several PA State and/or local agencies,' an FDA spokesperson told the Daily Mail.