AUGUSTA – Maine State Police were investigating a protest of Department of Human Services policies that involved the mailing of smashed raw eggs to Gov. Angus King.

About a dozen eggs, some of them dripping rancid liquid, have arrived at the governor’s office over the past three weeks, according to Lt. William A. Snedeker, head of the governor’s state police protection unit.

Some of the packages alarmed secretaries who handled them, and several were X-rayed and examined to determine whether they contained explosives, chemicals, or biological hazards.

Snedeker said the eggs were accompanied by unsigned messages, but he would not disclose what the letters said.

One of the people interviewed by a state police homicide detective said the detective read a letter, apparently from one of the packages, that asks those unhappy with child protective practices to mail a raw egg a day to King until he agrees to seven demands. The person interviewed asked not to be identified.

“Whenever Maine DHS steps in all of King’s horses and all of King’s men cannot put the families and children back together again,” the letter said.

The letter demands the removal of Human Services Commissioner Kevin Concannon, changes in legislation and other policies dealing with child protection cases.

“This is not the way to communicate with the governor’s office. This office has a policy of going to the nth degree to resolve problems,” Snedeker said. “But when people send us things in a convoluted manner like this, [it] doesn’t help resolve things.”

Snedeker said evidence from the packages is being kept at the state’s health and crime laboratories in case criminal charges are considered in the future.

DHS spokesman David Winslow said workers viewed the packages as a threat.

“A letter that comes with eggs is inappropriate and threatening and goes beyond a person stating their position about their case or a case,” he said.