23
$\begingroup$

Inspiration from @BeastlyGerbil's Puzzle - This is an opprtunity. Can you take it?


In Puzzlville last night, someone stole the famous Stone of Wondrous Mystery!

Can you help the police find it? But first... maybe you should read the news.

enter image description here

Note: I cannot confirm that all of the images came through clearly enough. If you find that there's something that you can't... read, then let me know, and I can supply the original image that you can't read... probably.

Hint:

There's a reason that there's one dark green and one light green in each sudoku box. Also, I made a mistake - foe should be for.

$\endgroup$
7
  • 6
    $\begingroup$ I advise you to click on the picture... $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 18:44
  • $\begingroup$ Barcode on the cereal: i.sstatic.net/dB3ow.png $\endgroup$
    – Mithical
    Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 18:49
  • $\begingroup$ Cells. Dark, then light. Newspaper. $\endgroup$
    – Mithical
    Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 20:20
  • $\begingroup$ @randal'thor But pretend it is - do NOT pretend that that 'n' is there. $\endgroup$
    – Mithical
    Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 21:26
  • $\begingroup$ @Mithrandir Ditto for "commitee" with one T? $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 21:29

3 Answers 3

17
$\begingroup$

Final Complete Answer:


The original image QR gives:

Charles = Kyle

Clicking on the image and reading the QR there gives

vavqvny=qrnz (@Deusovi points out this is rot13 for initial=team)

Notably it's upside down

The barcode on the cereal says:

cereal

And the QR says:

irving=corey

The barcode on the side gives

E5vEw.png

a link to here

The QR there says:

casper is actually jon. jon skeet. heh heh heh. just kidding. but he's really jon.

The barcode there says:

bart=j.a.

there is also a hidden imgur address

'aayEK.png'

which leads to:

picture

The solution to the sudoku is:

finished

The light green tiles give:

418862151

The dark green tiles give:

131399235

The suspects as listed below give their stories:

Charles Kyle Hendricks (26) Chicago Cubs Pitcher - Last night, I was out late at the Sphinx's bar, drinking with my buddies. Then at 'round midnight, I staggered off home, you know, at 28 Enigma Road. You can check with my buddies if you want.

Wesley Roak Tanner Roark (34) Washington Nationals Pitcher - I was just too tired to go to the game, I was sleeping. I haven't been anywhere near that museum. It's full of boring strange things - why would I go there?

Casper Lester Jon Lester (29) Chicago Cubs Pitcher - I was out of town last night, visiting my pop in Yhpargonagets [Steganography backwards]. I didn't touch no diamond.

Irving Kluber Corey Kluber (31) Cleveland Indians Pitcher - could not be found

Bartholomew J. Happ James Anthony Happ (37) Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher - could not be found

@Mithrandir has said Dark green then Light green so

131399235418862151

there is also another imgur link

enter image description here

leading to:

enter image description here

That has a link

enter image description here

to

enter image description here

The bear from sesame street

From this @Scimonster correctly deduced

That the baseball pitch and a baby bear indicates the CUBS

So the culprit is either Kyle Hendricks or Jon Lester

It has been repeatedly said Dark the Light so:

You will notice that each cell in the Sudoku has 1 dark green and 1 light green. The dark green number indicates the line number in the newspaper, the light green represents the letter. I'll edit in each line in a second. (Thanks @Scimonster)

Using this we get

1. Dark = 1 Light = 4 - Last night, under cover of
2. Dark = 1 Light = 8 - Last night, under cover of
3. Dark = 3 Light = 1 - broke into the Museum - Mistake
4. Dark = 9 Light = 6 - Mystery. Upon arriving
5. Dark = 3 Light = 8 - broke into the Museum
6. Dark = 9 Light = 2 - Mystery. Upon arriving
7. Dark = 5 Light = 1 - founded by the Commitee
8. Dark = 2 Light = 1 - of darkness, someone
9. Dark = 3 Light = 5 - broke into the Museum - Mistake


thbrtyfoe

However @Mithrandir says in the hint that 'foe' should be 'four'. There also seems to be another error. It should actually be

Thirty Fo(u)r

Which is

Jon Lester's Shirt Number

So the thief is

Jon Skeet Jon Lester

$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Just a note, you've probably noticed, Yhpargonagets is Steganography backwards. $\endgroup$
    – Zikato
    Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 10:43
  • $\begingroup$ @Zikato ...And the field is Cipher Field, and the teams are Riddlers and Mathers, and the town is Puzzlville... :P $\endgroup$
    – Mithical
    Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 10:57
8
$\begingroup$

Partial Answer

In the first image, there's a barely-visible

5-character code on the right that links to:
enter image description here
That has another code (jddiw) linking to a very similar image, but with a picture of Baby Bear from Sesame Street.

The QR code says

Charles = kyle.

There's another similar code if you

click the image. It's a barcode that says "E5vEw.png", which is an image:
enter image description here

And also

a rot13ed, upside down message in a QR code that says "initial = team".

More codes to scan:

The cereal box QR code says "irving = corey".
The cereal box barcode says "cereal". (Thanks, very helpful. :P )
The bottom right barcode says "bart = j.a."
The middle QR code says "casper is actually jon. jon skeet. heh heh heh. just kidding. but he's really jon."

There is another 5-character code

on the cereal bowl, wich links to an image: enter image description here The barcode once again just says "cereal".

That sudoku's solution:

734 251 689
628 479 513
951 683 724

172 836 945
469 527 831
583 914 276

896 142 357
247 365 198
315 798 462

The light green squares are:

4, 1, 8, 8, 6, 2, 1, 9, 1.

The dark green squares are:

1, 3, 1, 3, 9, 9, 2, 3, 5.

Not sure what to do with those - A1Z26 doesn't seem to produce anything useful.

So the real suspects are:

Kyle Hendricks, age 26 (pitcher for the Chicago Cubs)
Wesley Roark, age 34 (Tanner Roark: pitcher for Washington Nationals)
Jon Lester, age 29 (pitcher for the Chicago Cubs)
Corey Kluber, age 31 (pitcher for the Cleveland Indians)
Bartholomew J. Happ, age 37 (James Anthony Happ: pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays)

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Charles Hendricks apparently lives at 28 Enigma Rd. The real Kyle Hendricks wears uniform #28. Coincidence? I think not. $\endgroup$
    – Scimonster
    Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 19:40
  • $\begingroup$ @Scimonster I think that is just an easter egg $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 20:07
5
$\begingroup$

Partial answer: (Including final solution)

The two TV screens that get linked at some point show a baseball field and Baby Bear. The logical conclusion is that we're dealing with the Cubs.

We can then narrow down Deusovi's list to two suspects:

Kyle (aka Charles) Hendricks, age 26 (pitcher for the Chicago Cubs)
Jon (aka Casper) Lester, age 29 (pitcher for the Chicago Cubs)

As for which one, it has to have something to do with

the numbers from the sudoku puzzle

But i cannot figure out what.

Dark then light. They come in pairs. The first number of the pair is the line number; the second is the letter number.

If we use this on the news article in the first image, this gives us:

thbrtyfoe

From the hint we know

Also, I made a mistake - foe should be for.

And there appears to be another error, so in the end we get

thirtyfo[u]r

Which is

Jon Lester's uniform number.

So the culprit is:

Jon (aka Casper) Lester, #34, age 29 (pitcher for the Chicago Cubs)

$\endgroup$

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.