Neighborhood caught off guard when dozens of FBI agents show up to search for 'missing item'

Wednesday, February 5, 2025
CHATHAM COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- More than 50 FBI agents were seen searching the neighborhood and nearby wooded areas off of Highway 15-501 near Chapel Hill on Wednesday, catching some neighbors off guard.

"Woke me up out of my sleep," Candice Welch said. "It was a real loud bang, about 30 minutes apart. I thought it was just a transformer (blowing), it was loud."

Welch said she woke up to the sound of a bang followed by a large federal presence in the neighborhood near the intersection of Bell Circle and Woodbridge Drive.

The FBI said they were conducting "court-authorized investigative activity in connection with an ongoing federal law enforcement investigation," and declined to comment further after Eyewitness News asked if the sound Welch said she heard is related to the investigation.

FBI agents search Chatham County neighborhood (Photo: Feb. 5, 2025 | ABC11)



Chatham County deputies were also seen in the neighborhood assisting the FBI with this matter.



"They were looking for a missing item, that's all they told us," Welch said. "We knew it had to be something important, something very serious because of the fact that it was the FBI, along with the sheriff's deputies, and unmarked cars. There was a little bit of everything out here."

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