You're going to want to read each complete record in so you can search and return it. Something like 
my $searchfor = shift;
$/="%%%\n"
open(IN, 'datafile.txt') or die "Could not open: $!\n";
while (<IN>) {
  print if /\Q$searchfor\E/i;
}

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In reply to Re: Scanning a text file by Roy Johnson
in thread Scanning a text file by Anonymous Monk

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