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This is the first in a small series of puzzles. I'll try to get them out as soon as I can after each one is solved!

Friends,

At my latest visit to my local coffee shop for something to drink one recent morning, I found a scrap of paper with some strange information written on it. I tried my best to transcribe it, here goes:

To whoever finds this, remember: there are three sides to every story. Find me and I can give you anything you dreamed of... as long as you dreamed of a million euros. I've left clues on the reverse side of this paper, your job is to figure out where you need to go to find me, or find my next clue. Should travel be necessary, you'll find the numbers for a credit card on the back as well.

I checked on the back of the paper, and it just had these strange numbers and slashes on it:

43/6532/14/79/3832/23/264/57/46/1560

32/5149/14/117/0382/23/055/49/15/1930

61/2181/14/149/9003/23/098/58/23/4130

I'm not sharing the credit card number, as it doesn't seem relevant to the other numbers at hand. So, puzzlers, want to help me get a million euros? I promise I'll share it! Just tell me where you think I need to go.

Just to specify, stuff in italics is all just fluff.

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1 Answer 1

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I think that you should go to:

The town of Aurora, Nebraska, USA

Each of the three lines given has a coordinate in it. You'll note that the third number in each row is 14, and the sixth is 23. These stand for:

N and W, the 14th and 23rd letters.
The rows are each coordinates of a city in North America:

43.6532 N, 79.3832 W, Toronto
32.5149 N, 117.0382 W, Tijuana
61.2181 N, 149.9003 W, Anchorage

So now we have three locations, but our goal is a single location. Fortunately, we're given more information:

Each of these locations also has a heading (degrees-minutes-seconds) and distance (kilometers). Plotting these headings and distances in Google Earth, we find that they all point to the same location: Aurora Nebraska

Why someone with a million euros is hanging out in the States, I don't know. Perhaps we'll find more clues once we get there!

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  • $\begingroup$ This fits in with the theme of "There's 3 sides to every story." - 3 locations pointing to one. Also there's a tie between GPS and triangles, because to determine your GPS location you usually have to triangulate with at least 3 satellites. So it's like meta-GPS because the three locations are themselves three satellites. $\endgroup$
    – geokavel
    Aug 19, 2017 at 15:47
  • $\begingroup$ I was hoping it would take longer... now I have to think of the next step! Don't tell me this was super easy Dx $\endgroup$
    – TheThirdMage
    Aug 19, 2017 at 16:35
  • $\begingroup$ @TheThirdMage it wasn't too easy. I recognized they were coordinates right away, but that's because I've done geocaching for most of my life. Even after I found the three cities, it took me a while to figure out what the other numbers were. It was a fun puzzle though, and engaging enough to keep me up until 3 in the morning XP $\endgroup$
    – DqwertyC
    Aug 19, 2017 at 18:12

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