Updated September 30, 2021 54.7K votes 22.2K voters 3.0M views
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Vote up the mysteries that are actually really cool.
Reddit is a world-wide message board where you can help someone find a lost dog and share GIFs of yourself getting smacked in the face with kimchi. If you can view it on a computer, you can post it on Reddit. This usability is what makes it a breeding ground for mysterious posts that can be anything from marketing schemes to super weird art projects, or even a discovery of a famous actor’s doppelgänger.
These mysteries constantly show up on Reddit, where millions of people see them and become embroiled in the same nagging mysteries as those of us who spend countless hours trolling the dark web for new secrets to uncover. Prepare to lose some sleep over this list of the biggest mysteries uncovered on Reddit.
Of the many things Reddit users have done, “uncover super weird mysteries” is definitely at the top of the list. Sometimes, the mysteries are just really strange websites that are unsettling because of their unorthodox structure. But in other cases, the mysteries can seep into the the wider public consciousness, before getting picked up by major news outlets, like the BBC and Forbes. There are always small mysteries unfolding on Reddit, but these are some of the biggest that have been uncovered by the site’s massive global community.
When a photo of a nail suspended in the middle of pillars of wood showed up on Reddit, people lost their minds. It was probably like Nicolas Cage screaming "How did it get burned?" in Wicker Man, but about an impossible nail.
Thankfully, there's at least one carpenter online who helped everyone solve the mystery - see the video for the solution.
When Redditor /u/shadybusiness15 opened up an exploded extension cable, he found a SIM card with a serial number on it. After posting a picture of it online, other Redditors figured out there was a microphone connected to the SIM card. When the user called the number on the card, he heard the message of an answering system that said, "The service is now closed. If you have voicemail you can turn it on."
When he contacted the bug's manufacturer, he was told that he would have to get a warrant if he wanted to know what had been recorded.
Grateful Doe was the name of an unknown body wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt that was found in the wreckage of a car crash in 1995. People eventually forgot about the case and it was deemed unsolvable, that is until Layla Betts, a Redditor and Grateful Dead fan, began researching the case and posting what she found online.
As the case went viral, Betts was contacted by one of Doe's former roommates, who helped her put together the puzzle and learn that Doe's real name was Jason Callahan.
The Cicada 3301 puzzle appeared in 2012 along with the following message:
Hello. We are looking for highly intelligent individuals. To find them, we have devised a test. There is a message hidden in the image. Find it, and it will lead you on the road to finding us. We look forward to meeting the few who will make it all the way through. Good luck.
Wouldn't you know it, a Swedish cybersecurity researcher just happened to have the steganography software and knowledge of the Mayan language to solve it.
In 2013, a Redditor began to document his experience with digging through a box he found in the trash. Inside, he found beautifully hand-rendered posters, illustrations, maps, technical drawings, personal belongings, and a handwritten note about what was either an extraterrestrial invasion or some kind of government cover-up.
Most Redditors came to the conclusion that the creator of the contents was obsessed with the Book of Ezekiel from the Bible, and that he was probably schizophrenic.
The 432 mystery began on 4chan with an email that read, "You have been selected, where have you gone? We are watching." Then, there was a link to a website full of more gobbledygook like that. But things got really weird when whoever was behind the site started posting pictures and IRC names of people trying to solve the mystery.
