The truth is out there, but that doesn’t mean we always find it! It’s human nature to be captivated by a good old unsolved mystery, the weirder the better! From mysterious meat falling from the sky to the most famous TV hijacking incident of all time, let’s dive into some of the most bizarre urban mysteries that no one can solve!
Capitol Hill Mystery Soda Machine
This vending machine on Seattle’s Capitol Hill has become one of the most bizarre mysteries of the city’s recent history.
Other than its noticeable age and being almost completely covered in graffiti, what makes this machine different to your regular vending machine is that you don’t actually have the option to order a specific drink. Instead, users are presented with six faded yellow “mystery” buttons that, when pressed, dispense a completely random can of soda.
This oddity, first popping up in the early 1990s, is known for vending out some seriously weird and rare cans of soda, many of which haven’t been available since the 1980s. There are even rumors of cans of now-defunct Hubba Bubba soda, Crystal Pepsi and even bacon-infused Coca Cola all coming from the machine. On occasions when the old machine broke, Seattle residents reported that it would always be fixed in just a couple of days. Yet, no one knows where the machine came from, who’s been stocking and repairing it all this time, nor how they’ve been able to consistently get hold of all these soda rarities!
Things got even weirder in June 2018, when the mystery machine seemingly suddenly up and vanished! All that remained was a cryptic note left by the anonymous owner in the spot the machine usually stood stating that it “went for a walk.” Soon after, pictures began being posted to the
vending machine’s Facebook page, yes, the machine has its own Facebook page, showing the many definitely-not-photoshopped adventures the machine had been on during its absence.There are plenty of whacky theories online about the mystery soda machine, with some concluding it might be haunted! But one of the more common hypothesizes is that the machine is owned and operated by the owners of Broadway Locksmith, the store behind which the machine was located. Supporting this theory is the fact that the machine drew electrical power from Broadway Locksmith and had a padlock on it of a kind sold in the store.
Despite this evidence, however, the owner of Broadway Locksmith has stuck to the same story for over a decade. They claim they don’t know who owns the machine and have never seen anyone open it. Of course, it’s possible that Broadway Locksmith are in on this soda-spiracy. But what’s peculiar is that Seattle city vending machine permit officials, when contacted by the Seattle Times, surprisingly revealed that there were absolutely no official records of the machine anywhere.While few have ever seen anyone open or restock the machine, Facebook and Twitter users have shared covert images of a man and woman caught standing in front of the open machine. However, no one in these images has come forward or been identified. Despite staying mostly silent since 2019, the machine’s Facebook account did
provide an update in late 2020, suggesting it might be re-appearing soon, to the delight of residents and fans alike. It's last update was on 10th June, 2024, saying "On the move! Getting taken in on a old school gurnee bed.
" It’s just a matter of grabbing a soda from elsewhere and awaiting the grand return, and possibly, the emergence of more clues to finally solve this mystery.
TV Head
We’re all used to finding things on our doorsteps these days, from Amazon packages to midnight Postmates deliveries. But locals of Henrico County, Virginia found something so strange waiting for them on their porches, they swore they must be living in a movie!
One morning in August 2018, residents woke up to
find vintage TV sets sitting on their front porches. Police were flooded with calls by bemused locals, some of which didn’t find the prank remotely funny.
What’s more, some residents found some extremely bizarre footage recorded on their doorbell cameras, showing that the TVs were delivered by a man wearing a TV on his own head! This mysterious character delivered old-school box TV sets to the doorsteps of more than 50 households, and left residents wondering if they’d just entered the Twilight Zone.
Person Leaves Old TVs on More Than 50 Doorsteps in Virginia | NowThis by NowThis Impact Some online sleuths pointed to a YouTube video posted by Henrico resident, Zach Levet, who documented the incident along with his friends. Some believe that Zach may have been behind the stunt to drum up views for his channel, but aside from the speed at which he produced the video, there was no hard evidence to link Zach to the TVs. However, a few weeks after the bizarre episode, police announced that they were investigating an unnamed 19-year-old in connection with the case. Well, guess who also so happened to be 19 at the time? Yes: Zach Levet. But while it looks like police may have found the culprit, no suspect name or further information was ever officially released, so, for us, it looks like this whodunit will be running for few seasons more!
Mystery Meat Crashes Down On Florida Family's Roof
When a loud crash woke a Florida family in the middle of the night in July 2017, they assumed it was just the beginnings of a thunderstorm. But what they found the next morning left them hungry for answers. To the Adair family’s surprise, on the roof of their home lay 15-pounds of half-frozen Italian sausage meat and pork chops that had seemingly fallen out of the sky!
Not only were there
three big packets of meat on the roof; there were two more packages in their side yard, leaving the family perplexed as to where this meat-eorite had come from. The sausage saga continued as the meat found in marked bags turned out to originate from a food warehouse 150 miles west from the Adair home.
The warehouse owner was able to confirm that while the meat in question had come from his warehouse, it had been packaged over six months prior! He’d sold the meat to a land service company whose owner says he remembers picking the meat up but has zero idea of how it would have ended up on someone’s roof. The warehouse owner even offered to drive over to the family with some more meat for a mystery cracking cookout session!With no leads to date, the family theorize that the meat fell from an airplane from one of three airports local to the home but didn’t report hearing any airplanes overhead on the night in question. Also, you’d think that bags of frozen meat falling from that height would put a hole in the roof! Another theory, of course, is that it’s just a prank, and someone threw the meat on the roof, Walter White-style. But even that theory doesn’t have much meat on its bones, considering the meat-bags would’ve been too heavy to easily throw onto the roof.
Deerfield Beach family wakes up to sausage hitting roof by WPLG Local 10 To this day, the Federal Aviation Administration are yet to publicly comment on the incident with details regarding flights that night. So, until this sky-fall mystery’s solved, it looks like the Florida weather forecast will remain cloudy with a chance of meatballs and sausage!
Des Peres Pickle Jar
For Missouri locals driving through the Des Peres area, the daily commute is occasionally revitalized by a very odd, yet strangely regular sight.
Perched on a ramp that leads from the I-270 North, there often sits a solitary and mysterious jar of pickles, but the real pickle in this situation is that no one has any idea where they’re coming from. Highway commuters and pickle enthusiasts alike relished the idea of this mystery and promptly created a
Facebook group dedicated to how, and why, these jars kept finding their way to the I-270 highway. While this may not seem like a big dill to the uninitiated, these pickles have appeared in the exact same spot since as early as 2012, like some strange, persistent offerings to the pickle gods!
No consistent pattern in terms of the timings of their appearance has emerged as of yet, and the jars can go months between appearances. The pesky pickles were most recently spotted in May 2021, but considering no one has ever been seen dropping the puzzling artifacts off, this mystery remains harder to crack open than a particularly stubborn pickle jar!
Car Dangling From Toronto bridge
One morning in May 2018, the early work commute for drivers in Toronto went from mind-numbingly boring to head-scratchingly bizarre thanks to a very unusual spectacle indeed. Drivers were shocked to notice a car dangling about 30 feet from the ground under the Millwood Bridge in the Don Valley, attached with nothing more than a thick piece of electrical cable.
What’s more, the blue Honda Civic was missing its windows. At first, police though that the dangling car must be some kind of movie prop, but soon learned from city officials that there weren’t any movies shooting in the area. No one caught a glimpse of the car being lowered from the bridge, nor the people who did it, which you’d think would be pretty difficult to miss!
It’s assumed that the stunt was the work of pranksters, though not your standard YouTube “it’s a social experiment bro” types! Whoever did this would’ve needed a good amount of knowledge of physics and engineering to pull this off, considering how they removed the engine transmission and other heavy parts to make the car as light as possible. It’s likely that the car was hoisted off the ground as opposed to pushed from the bridge itself, which offers some explanation for how no one saw anything. A similar stunt was carried out by a group of student engineers back in 1982, who dangled the shell of an old Volkswagen Beetle off the railings of Vancouver’s Iron Workers Memorial Bridge. Their attempt, however, was less successful, and their vehicle ended up plummeting into the river below, leading to the students’ arrests!When it came to Toronto’s dangling Honda, however, police were able to get the car down without anyone being hurt, but to this day, no one has ever come forward with any information on who might have been tied to this elaborate stunt.
Stolen Gnome Returns Home After 8 Months Of Adventures
If you, or anyone you know owns a garden gnome, you’d better keep a close eye on it! In December 2015, Bev York from British Columbia, Canada, became entangled in a mysterious serial-gnome-kidnapping case, the likes of which have been occurring intermittently for the past 40 years!
After her gnome disappeared from her lawn, Bev lost all hope of ever seeing her little friend again. But on July 25th the following year, Bev woke up to find that lawn and order had been restored as her
soccer-playing gnome had magically reappeared in a bag tied to her front gate. To her surprise, her long-lost companion had brought along a gift in the form of a perfectly-bound photo album that documented his many adventures while he’d been gone. The first page even began with a ‘handwritten’ note from the gnome, now named Leopold, explaining exactly where he’d been! The rest of the album showed the little nomad posing for plenty of vacation selfies, including a snap in front of the Grand Canyon! He even found time for a few Margaritas on the sunny beaches of Mexico!
'Kidnapped' gnome returns home after whirlwind trip by CTV News As hilarious as it sounds, Leopold is not the first gnome to roam away from his front-yard habitat, as the travelling gnome prank dates right back to the 1980s. The practice, known as gnoming by its participants involves the friendly, temporary abduction of lawn gnomes, which are usually returned after sending owners a string of photos of their beloved gnome doing a variety of activities. In fact, the earliest record of a travelling gnome prank dates back to 1986 in Australia when a gnome dubbed Bilbo by its captors was said to have left a note that read:
Dear mum, couldn’t stand the solitude any longer. Gone off to see the world. Don’t be worried, I’ll be back soon, Love Bilbo. While Bilbo the gnome’s fate remains uncertain, as there’s no record of whether he returned home, nor whether he stumbled across any magical rings, Leopold certainly did return. Unlike some of her predecessors, Bev was delighted by her garden friend’s adventure and thought the whole thing was pretty sweet, commending the hard work that went into making the photo album. The one and only clue left for Bev in this case as to the identity of her gnome’s captors, was a cute snap of Leopold next to a sleeping toddler. However, Bev says she has no idea who the toddler could be, so the true identity of Leopold’s friendly abductors remains completely un-gnome!
The Leatherman
The county of Westchester, New York is no stranger to urban legends. But despite tales of witches and farmhouse ghosts, no local mystery is as elusive as the story of an anonymous traveller, known for some pretty bizarre clothing.
In 19th century America, there were many people, known as vagabonds, who wandered from place to place without a home. Stories of these nomadic travelers often spread around the towns they frequented, and many vagabonds would share their stories with townsfolk as they passed by. Except for one man.In 1857, a mysterious vagabond showed up in Westchester, puzzling townspeople even from the start. He was dressed head to toe in roughly-stitched, patchy leather, wearing a hat; a pair of trousers that went up to his chest; a pair of leather topped shoes; and a huge leather coat that fell just over his knees.
Not only did his leathery get-up make him stand out as a little strange, but he also refused to give any information about himself, not even his name, nor where he’d come from. So, due to his odd outfit, he became simply known as Leatherman.The only thing anyone knew about the Leatherman was the long circuit he followed year after year. Each month, travelling solely on foot, the Leatherman would complete a rigorous, yet predictable, circuit of 365 miles between the Hudson and Connecticut rivers! This guy set himself up for quite the workout, donning his 60-pound leathery look on this roundtrip which would take him around 34 days each time. Leatherman’s route was so precise that townspeople were able to set their clocks in conjunction with the arrival of the Leatherman!
That was until 1889, when people started to notice that Old Leatherman wasn’t stopping by their towns anymore. Sadly, on March 24th, his body was found in Saw Mill Woods, tucked away in a cave where he’d often take shelter from blizzards and other bad weather. His ultimate demise was from mouth cancer, which was likely caused by tobacco use. Those who found him searched around for any remaining personal effects and uncovered the biggest clue in unravelling Leatherman’s identity. On his body, they found a French-language prayer book, leading many to believe that he was in fact French-Canadian!
Other than the prayer book and, of course, his ritualistic roaming, there are very few other parts of the Leatherman’s life that provide us with much of a glimpse into his personality. His penchant for leather was, of course, a staple of his secretive personality, along with his hermit-like existence living in local caves when he wasn’t on the move. Upon his death, locals reportedly buried his remains in the pauper’s section of Sparta Cemetery in nearby Ossining, New York. But locals are still fascinated by this mysterious figure to this day, and in 2011 petitioned for Old Leatherman’s gravesite to be moved somewhere nicer, away from a busy main road. However, as if in keeping with the overarching mystery of Leatherman’s life, when the grave was exhumed, no visible traces were found of the Leatherman’s remains. The only thing found were some coffin nails, which were later reburied in a box, along with some soil from the old grave site.
The Leatherman most certainly took his secrets to the grave, as with no visible remains, archaeologists were unable to test the mystery man’s true origins. With no real closure to enigma of this curious vagabond, on 25th of May 2011, the nails and soil were reburied under a new headstone in a nearby cemetery that simply reads: The Leatherman.
PK Kid
Most of us see spray-painted graffiti pretty much daily, though it largely remains tucked away underneath bridges, on the back of box trucks and along railway lines. But there’s a graffiti artist out there whose work is placed in such jaw-dropping places that the only logical explanation is that Spiderman is behind it. It’s all in a day’s artwork for the elusive PK Kid.
Despite their name, this daredevil street artist isn’t kidding around and is always one to take the mural high ground with their work, which has popped up in some truly astonishing places all over New Jersey, USA, including lofty water towers, and sheer, tall building faces.
So how did they go about getting these tags in such high places? Well, no one knows for sure, but it’s thought that it might be a team effort.Some locals believe that PK and KID are two separate street artists who share a love for just about the highest art you can get! Tagging where no one else would dare, this supposed team are thought to use climbing ropes and other extreme scaling techniques to reach their canvases.
While nobody has started interrogating members at the rock climbing gyms of New Jersey, some allege that PK Kid is actually Diego Rivera, a Los Angeles preacher’s son, and that PK stands for Preacher’s Kid. Given that Diego is known as a mural artist, there may be some weight to this theory. But, unfortunately for us, the illegal nature of graffiti like this means artists usually keep their identity under wraps. To date, that’s certainly proven true for the mysterious daredevil behind the PK Kid tags.
Max Headroom Signal Hijacking
The evening of November 22nd, 1987 started out as a pretty ordinary Sunday night for TV viewers in Chicago, Illinois. However, as WGN-TV’s 9:00pm news broadcast switched over to its sport segment, screens across the city cut to black. 15-seconds later, a mysterious figure appeared, and a thirty-year long TV mystery was born!
The video depicted a figure wearing a rubber mask and costume swaying around the screen, backed up by nothing but fuzzy audio. The video only lasted around 13-seconds overall, while it took around 30-seconds for the engineers to step in and get things straightened out.
Not only was
the incident seriously creepy, it had the network completely baffled. Engineers at the network initially theorized that the interference was an inside job by an employee, so immediately started searching around the studio, but they didn’t find anyone. It turned out, the broadcast had been pre-recorded and WGN’s signal was hijacked by someone else who played their own special showcase to the TV audience of Chicago that night. Just as everyone started to relax again and forget about the weird interruption on the evening news, the hackers were at it again, this time in the middle of a Doctor Who episode airing on PBS. The thing was that this time, the channel engineers had gone home for the night, so there was no one to stop the interfering transmission, and it played all the way through in front of a stunned audience; some angry, most confused and some just downright entertained. Network officials, however, were not remotely amused, and set up a fully-fledged investigation into who was behind the TV attack, they even brought in the FBI!If you’re wondering exactly who the strange mask was depicting, he was a TV character called Max Headroom who first appeared in his own made-for-TV-movie, titled ‘Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future’, in 1985. He subsequently featured in a satirical TV show that intercut music videos and talk-show segments with Max Headroom’s sarcastic smooth-talk, playing the character of a futuristic, dystopian, digital reproduction of a TV host.
The show was pretty popular around the time of the hijacking, so most of the audience would have likely recognized him. What’s more, the hackers did a pretty impressive job in imitating his show, down to the line-based, colorful background twisting and turning behind him.To this day, the perpetrator still hasn’t been caught, and thousands of theories have been put forward. Most assert that it was an employee with a grudge against WGN, but with no clear message in the videos and no obvious motive, it’s hard to pin it on anyone.
MAX HEADROOM COMPILATION by RBC race video The Potato Phantom
It’s not often you hear ghost stories about potatoes. But that starchy nightmare became a reality for residents of Jackson, Mississippi back in 2019.
On Tuesday 9th April 2019, as one local woman was getting ready to leave for work in the Belhaven neighborhood, she noticed a Styrofoam bowl filled with a mysterious substance placed on the hood of her car. On closer inspection she found that the contents of the bowl were, of all things, a mound of mashed potato!
After posting about her potato problem on Facebook, other residents took to the comments to hash out their own mishaps with the mash. One resident said he almost put his foot in it when a bowl of the stuff was left on his porch. It turned out that bowls of mash had turned up overnight just about everywhere: on people’s cars, front porches, and mailboxes! There may not be anything especially supernatural about these spuds but locals began referring to whoever was responsible as the potato phantom all the same. Some worried that the potatoes might be poisoned but, obeying the 3-second rule, no one was feeling brave enough for a taste-test! Many residents were happy to believe the spud-stunt was just a harmless prank and leave it at that, but others began peeling away at potential leads and uncovered a significant clue that looked like it might help solve the mystery. One resident pointed out that many of the victims of this
potato prank were staff and alumni of a local university. Maybe the victims had wronged someone by taking the last scoop of mashed potato in the college cafeteria? Perhaps someone had applied for the college’s farming course, only to be turned away, and wanted to take their jealousy out on their would-be classmates and professors in a suitably ironic manner? To date, there’s no definitive answer. The perpe-taters are still managing to their identity under wraps, so for now it looks like it’s game, set and mash for this potato prankster!
If you were amazed at these urban mysteries, you might want to read about strange
mysteries solved by Reddit and the internet. Thanks for reading!
