Residents of southwest suburban New Lenox Township are perplexed about a number of recruitment fliers from the Ku Klux Klan left in the area.
Janice Dellar, who lives near Cedar Road and Joliet Highway, found one of the fliers in a plastic baggie weighed down with a rock so it wouldn't blow away.
"I haven't seen anything like this, hate like this in 30 years," Dellar said. "I'm just very shocked to find it in this neighborhood."
Dellar called the Will County Sheriff's Department, who confirmed that other have called about it as well.
The flier is call to "Join the Klan," and includes a link to a web site and the address of a post office box in North Carolina. A hotline number leads to a recording with a "white power" recruitment message from the Loyal White Knights division of the Klan.
Cassandra Higgins said her renters brought the fliers to her attention.
"I was taken aback, kind of shocked," Higgins said. "We all knew the KKK is out there, we just didn't think it was that prevalent."
According to the Mark Potak of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the KKK is much less prevalent than it used to be. There were 4 million members in the 1920s, compared to the 6,000 believed to be active today.
Potok suspects the packages are likely little more than advertising.
"People here are hard working, no matter what color they are. Why does this end up on our lawns? It's trash," Dellar said.
It's unclear how many fliers were dispersed in the area.
