Rat Poisoned Bread Rolls Rock German Factory; Note Thanked Company Managers, Wished Recipients "Good Appetite" [VIDEO]

25 people have been sent to the hospital in Germany after eating rat-poison-laced bread. Authorities report the poisoned bread rolls were left at the company, a plastics factory in Lower Saxony, Germany, as an anonymous thank-you gift. After about 25 workers ate the poisoned sandwiches, one of the workers noticed an odd substance on the bread and several of the workers went to the hospital, suspecting they'd been poisoned, and the authorities were notified. Emergency services rounded up the rest of the workers and a helicopter came to pick up the rolls. They were covered with what appeared to be small red grains.

A box of sandwiches, as the US would call them-or, in Germany, called 'breadrolls', a common German breakfast or snack filled with cold cuts or cheese-- were left with a note and workers helped themselves to the snacks, the BBC reported on April 17, 2013. Chillingly, an accompanying note wished the eaters a good appetite. It also mentioned the company's management, which may have to do with the motives of the case. Authorities have not confirmed this yet.

The sandwiches were taken to a lab in Berlin and overnight tests confirmed the presence of rat poison.

Fortunately, none of the 25 workers who ate the sandwiches have showed signs of rat poisoning, but they remain under observation as a precautionary measure. Rat poisoning symptoms could take up to two weeks' time to emerge. Thus, rodenticide has been the weapon in murder cases, both fictional and nonfictional, in which a family member is poisoned slowly for a long time after poison is added to their food daily. It's thought to be particularly dangerous because it builds up slowly in the system and has symptoms similar to the common influenza virus.

"We don't believe the amount of poison used would have been deadly, but it could have caused serious illness," reports police spokesman Frank Soika. An investigation is currently ongoing, but German authorities have no suspects or motives for the poisoning incident at the present time.