Delivery driver foils Texas hostage situation after alerting police to alarming order details

Driver called police after seeing that delivery order to motel room included zip ties, hatchet, bleach and trash bags

A driver for an delivery service recently helped police in west-central Texas foil a hostage situation after reporting that he had delivered zip ties, a hatchet and other suspicious items to a motel room as part of an order, according to authorities and media accounts.

When officers approached the room to which those items had been delivered, 42-year-old Neil Cooper of Snyder, Texas, said he was armed and would not come out, police said. Officers were also told that there was “a possible hostage … inside the room”.

The hostage managed to get out the room while police established contact with Cooper, police said. Cooper eventually surrendered to police after speaking with a crisis negotiator from Texas’s public safety department, according to investigators.