Puzzle: Anyone in Miami Beach, Austin, Cambridge or San Francisco Able to Help With T

Factual Questions
1

I posted in a previous thread about a Twitter user who was tweeting in code—it turned out to be ROT13—but solving that puzzle just led to another. The decoded text revealed Google Map URLs for locations in Miami Beach, Cambridge, Austin and San Francisco. Interestingly, the Street View images all show newspaper boxes. Another twitter user and I think there might be something written on or placed in those boxes, but we don’t live in any of those cities. Anyone wanna check them out?

San Francisco: Google Maps
Miami: Google Maps
Cambridge: Google Maps
Austin: Google Maps

2

All I can tell ya is the picture from Austin was taken in a part of town called SoCo ( a recent and stupid appellation used by nuevo hippies and Austinite wannabees).

3

Ok, then maybe that’s the start, because South Beach is sometimes called SoBe.

4

Changed thread title from “Anyone in Miami Beach, Austin, Cambridge or San Francisco Able to Help With This?” to “Puzzle: Anyone in Miami Beach, Austin, Cambridge or San Francisco Able to Help With This?” at OPs request.

Gfactor
General Questions Moderator

5

One could call the San Francisco place SoMa (South of Market), but it would be a little bit of a stretch. Looks more like the Mission District to me.

Ed

6

I work near the Cambridge one. I can go for a walk during lunch.

What am I looking for?

7

Thanks. I’ve no idea what to look for. I assume that there’s either something written on a newspaper box or hidden inside one. Like the code that the original tweeter was posting in, if it’s a real puzzle, then it’s designed to be solved.

8

The Cambridge location is literally right in front of my building at work. I’ll walk past it in a few minutes and report back.

9

The three boxes are now split up with two (Globe and Herald) together on one side and the third (Metro) by itself. The Metro box had a “Hello my name is” sticker with what looks like YoYiC written on it. Nothing else written on the other two.

10

Was there anything hidden inside the boxes?

11

The red box in the picture is not there anymore.
The yellow box is a Boston Herald. (no markings)
The green box is a Boston Globe. (no markings)
I don’t know what the red box is because it is not there anymore.

A bit further down is a Metro box.

224 Broadway does not exist.
222 is a Dunkin Donuts
228 is split as two restaurants.

If I had gotten there a bit later I probably would have run into Telemark and we could look confused together.

12

Presumably newspapers.
I didn’t buy one.

13

Anything in or on the Metro box? Maybe the Street View is zoomed in too far.

ETA: I might’ve messed up the TinyURL and sent a version that was zoomed in too far. This is what it should’ve been: Google Maps

Thanks for the (literal) legwork.

14

I was looking for anyone else eying the newspaper boxes. I didn’t see anything inside the Metro box but I didn’t examine it closely.

15

I imagine the red box was one of those “free real estate listings” type dealies. At least, those molded plastic ones always had something like that when I was there.

I used to live a few blocks from there. Where were y’alls when I was in town?

16

It was a jobs listing magazine, IIRC. I don’t know when it was last there - that image is probably close to a year old.

17

Any chance during a coffee break or after work you could take a closer look in and around the Metro box?

18

Seems to me that hiding a message on newspaper boxes in disparate locations is somewhat risky, as the message could be removed and the puzzle rendered unsolvable.

Do you have an idea what form the puzzle answer should be in? I can think of a couple plausible, but sketchy, answers. Frex:

[spoiler]


**C**HRONICLE (San Francisco)
S**U**NPOST (Miami Beach)
CH**R**ONICLE (Cambridge)
STA**T**ESMAN (Austin)
CURT?

[/spoiler]That’s sorta plausible, but of a klugy construction and not really a satisfactory answer. Alternatively,

San Francisco, Cambridge, and Austin have papers called the Chronicle. That’s Three out of Four cities, which fits with the user’s Twitter name.I like that one better, as there’s a bit of elegance there, but I have no idea why that would be an appropriate answer.

19

I guess you’ve never heard of geocaching then.

20

No one on the board’s from Miami Beach, San Fracisco or Austin?