Art of Trolling

This Land Mine Internet Mystery Is One Of The Greatest Trolls We've Ever Seen

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    First, the picture the guy uploaded that sent everyone into a manic freakout:

    Soil
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    KnightofSunlight kind of went totally inactive after uploading the pic, which didn't help matters...

    Text - [-] MeowsterOfCats 493 points 7 month OP, from the looks of your account, you haven't posted since you discovered what the others say is a landmine. For the love of God, please don't be dead. permalink source embed save-RES hide child comments IronMew428 points 4 months ago Checked his account. Was quite active before, still hasn't posted months after this. Is there any way of knowing what happened? permalink source embed save-RES parent


    Some folks were quick to speculate that what they had on their hands was a man who had potentially died by landmine-suicide, and that this was his morbid goodbye. After about a month of painful silence, an investigation was mounted by the subreddit, Reddit Bureau of Investigation. Little was discovered besides the fact that the original poster lived in Redding, CA; AND that he was possibly moving to Ecuador where land mines aren't uncommon (further fueling the stress). The story lost steam after that, except for the occasional AskReddit thread when someone would ask about the creepiest/unsolved thing to happen on Reddit.

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    All seemed lost until a redditor, Electronic-Dad unraveled the elaborate mystery!

    Text - "He's alive. I actually posted this two months ago, but was suspended for 'posting public information," Electronic-Dad wrote in the thread.

    Through some serious sleuthing, Electronic-Dad managed to connect KnightofSunlight to a user of a gaming forum and Steam account, which was located in Redding, CA, no less.

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    But really, how did Electronic-Dad DO IT?

    Text - # 23 08-29-2014 I've compiled the Global Ban List into blackl ist xml entries which you can copy the contents of and paste into your serveradmin.xml if you are having trouble getting FrontrunnerTek's solution to work LINK TO XML stupid Tracker Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 237 Rep Power: Reply With Quote

    KnightofSunlight went and posted a list of banned userIDs to the gaming subreddit r/7daystodie. Even though the list is now offline, Electronic-Dad 'google searched' the image link which led him to another user named 'Stupid' using the same link, posted just a day before the Reddit thread.

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    He went on to note some other suspicious similarities:

    Text - KnightofSunlight often posted a fair amount of fedora memes. As you can see in the photo above, Stupid's avatar is also a photo of the fedora meme. Both accounts also posted about owning a server. What finally tied the two together was a thread started by Stupid which included a screenshot, stating, "In this screenshot my character.
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    So, clearly, Stupid's username was also in fact Keystone Knight! And his account is still active!

    Text - Install Steam login language STEAM STORE COMMUNITY ABOUT SUPPORT Keystone Knight Level (4 Dustin Redding, California, United States STOn HT No information given. Recent Activity 11.3 hours past 2 weeks Currently Offline Last Online 8 hrs, 22 mins ago DAYS TO DIE 7 Days to Die Badges 3 835 hrs on record last played on Sep 3 2 25+ Achievement Progress 0 of 43 TO Screenshots 8 Review 1 Games 33

    Both located in same location in Redding, CA.

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    Further linking these three accounts together, Electronic-Dad discovered Keystone Knight also went by Reddit Gold User:

    Text - Reddit Gold User 4 days ago Mlady I hope you didn't throw out those crispy bits that were left over, those looked delicious! Reply Hide replies Paleo Star 2 days ago +Reddit Gold User I ate quite a lot of those, they were delicious. Also gave some to my dogs and they loved them) Reply Reddit Gold User 1 day ago +Paleo Star A tip of my fedora I give unto you mlady Reply Paleo Star 13 hours ago +Reddit Gold User Reply
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    The folks over at Mashable reached out to Electronic-Dad for questioning, but had no luck.

    Tree - N/electranic ded eloRK DETECTAYE APPRONAL OF SEAL

    HOWEVER, Electronic-Dad did tell them that he got in touch with Keystone Knight who sent him the picture above.

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    Mashable went ahead and wrapped this case up by reaching out to Keystone Knight.

    Text - Keystone Knight Never tell your password to anyone. bkurbs: Hey man. So I'm following a story on Reddit in which a man posted a photo in the subreddit What Is This Thing? The photo happens to be of a land mine and the Redditor disappeared after that, sparking a conspiracy theory that maybe the Redditor died from the land mine Well, the Redditor lives in Redding, and I was able to trace his profile to your profile. I was wondering if you could confirm that this is in fact your clever joke,

    They were planning on confirming Electronic-Dad's sleuthing, who actually did respond saying that he was the epic troll who posted the original photo of the land mine! Wow is right. WOW.

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    He didn't stop there though in the reveals:

    Text - Keystone Knight Never tell your password to anyone. bkurbs: That's who led me here! I was wondering if I could get your name for the story? Also can you talk to me a little bit about the land mine? Wed Sep 14 2016 Keystone Knight: Dustin. i 3d printed the mine SEND

    He also said that he sent the photo to Electronic-Dad and that he burns his accounts at the end of the year. It's just he had no idea how obsessed Reddit would get with that particular photo he uploaded before going off the grid with that account.

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