The first incidents involved two private parties at their flagship Dave’s Diner in Des Moines. Reports of ill customers reached the restaurant as local emergency rooms began taking in seriously and suddenly ill patients of all kinds — children, older adults, a cross-section of individuals from the community. A local radio station, apparently tipped off by an ER worker, sent a local freelance reporter to several emergency rooms in the area to interview both staff and victims. The reporter, almost immediately, began doing live broadcast interviews with victims and their families.