Homeowners Discover Mystery Hidden USB—Then Things Get Stranger

Reddit users have banded together to make sense of what had been stored on a hidden USB that a couple have discovered in their home. Reddit user u/kerobyx took to the platform on February 1 with an image of the battered USB flash drive and a brief handwritten note from his partner mentioning what she had found. "My girlfriend left me this note on her way to work this morning. I've never seen this flash drive before," the poster said. What followed was a flurry of curiosity and speculation in the comments section as thousands of Reddit users united to solve the mystery. The post quickly gained traction, racking up more than 39,000 upvotes to date. The poster's girlfriend had found the USB in the mulch by a door at home. The poster later shared a second image, revealing the drive's contents: a collection of unreadable files, lines of code and an unopened Excel spreadsheet.

"I'm not sure what the files mean," they said in the thread, leaving Reddit users to fill in the blanks. Other users wasted no time diving into theories, while some shared lighthearted jokes about what could be within the mysterious files. Among the comments was one from a user who claimed to recognize the files. "I work at a Sharp distributor," they, known online as u/concealedcarrylemon, said. "These are firmware files for Sharp multi-function printers. MX-3071 and BP-70xxx are model names...From your description, the CSV file is probably an address book export from one of the machines. "Not sure how it ended up in your backyard, but our copier techs carry these types of drives to perform updates and port printer configurations and other settings from the old machine when our customers get a new one." The explanation, though far from the elaborate cyber-mystery some had hoped for, was quickly validated by others. More than 100 users upvoted the response, confirming that the file types matched known Sharp printer firmware. The poster later returned to the thread with an update. "The Excel file was full of names and email addresses which I didn't want to share on Reddit for obvious reasons," they added. Despite the relatively mundane explanation for what is on the flash drive, the story has struck a chord with viewers online, leading to plenty of banter in the comments. "You shouldn't invade your mulch's privacy," one viewer commented. Another added: "It's going to be some 15-year-old kid's power point presentation." "I believe there is a man in the U.K. looking for this and his $360,000,000 worth of bitcoin. Nice find," a third viewer said. Do you have any funny videos or pictures that you want to share? We want to see the best ones! Send them to life@newsweek.com, and they could appear on our site.