The Phantom City

I was so hoping this story from the Akron Beacon-Journal was an April Fools joke, but it looks like it just happens to involve fools in April.

The gist of the story is that five teenage girls went around Ravenna, Ohio, and placed gift-wrapped boxes modelled after blocks in Super Mario Bros. The boxes were wrapped in gold paper with question marks.

Sadly enough, in these times, that’s apparently enough to get someone to call out the Bomb Squad. It’s also may be enough for criminal charges. (I hope they’re talking about littering.)

Now, everyone may have reason to be nervous around unclaimed packages, but gold paper and question marks seem more the M.O. of the Riddler, not terrorists. One would hope common sense would prevail.

Courtesy of Techdirt

Update: More local coverage and some pictures of the boxes.