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LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. – Authorities are trying to figure out who left a noose hanging on a pole outside a Lauderdale County Church. It happened at St. John  Primitive Baptist Church, just west of Florence.

Investigators with the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office say they were called to the church Thursday morning when someone found the rope tied into a noose hanging from a pole. They believe someone hung the noose sometime after Wednesday night services.

The noose is now in the custody of deputies. They took fingerprints in the area to try to determine who might have left it.

Sheriff’s investigators say this is the first incident like this they’ve been called to. They have made the State Bureau of Investigation aware.