Story Archive

Were Any in the Mystery Section?

Dan Cotton, the Avon Lake (Ohio) Public Library page supervisor, found an empty A.1. steak sauce bottle hidden among the newspapers. Then he found another, and then another — a total of 28 10-ounce bottles, all thoroughly cleaned, and the labels removed. Staff is trying to figure out who has been placing the bottles, and why. “We mapped the first 12 to see if we could find a pattern,” Cotton said, but they didn’t see any. Several theories have been put forward as to the why, including smuggling in booze (but the bottles only have a faint smell of steak sauce), geocaching (there’s no apparent connection to the geocache on the library grounds), and even “dragon magic”. “Pretty sure a book worm in the restaurant industry is having a good chuckle right about now,” said a commenter on the librarys Facebook page. Another patron suggested reaching out to the library’s “steak holders” for help. (MS/Elyria Chronicle-Telegram) ...Or maybe try a “steak out” to catch the prankster.