You probably also want to check using eq: 
use strict;
use warnings;

my %H1 = (
        'THINGS' => ['thing1', 'thing2'],
        'PEOPLE' => ['andy', 'margot', 'dave', 'joe'],
);
my $thing = 'thing1';

if (grep {$_ eq $thing} @{$H1{'THINGS'}}) {
    print "found\n";
}
else {
    print "not found\n";
}

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In reply to Re: Hash-O-Array Help by toolic
in thread Hash-O-Array Help by Anonymous Monk

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