Project 905 - Oversight is watching

The internet can be an interesting and scary place sometime, a world within a world, yet separate from our own. A place where you can be someone else and it never has to affect the real world. But sometimes the real world and the virtual world inside our computer monitors collide.

Keep in mind that every ounce of this is truth. The legacy of a shadowed individual known as Oversight among the legion known as anonymous.

It all started on a notorious online image bulletin board called 4chan.org. A part of an online community known as anonymous, places where people can post messages and images without revealing their own identity, everyone there is simply anonymous.

The boards on 4chan are separated into topics like paranormal, videogames and delving into other pornographic boards for adult users. This story began on the anything-goes board called random. Each board has a letter code (/v/ for videogames, /x/ for paranormal, etc.) random is simply known as /b/.

The post on June 15, 2008 from the one who would soon be known to 4chan as Oversight said:

“No doubt you’ve found yourself alone on a weekend.”

“We’ve all felt it. Striving to do something with yourself, and definitely knowing what to do. Of course it’s for some reason or another that you can’t get out and live life; break the umbilical bond with your computer monitor. You don’t have friends, that’s why you spend your days here.”

“What if I presented you with a challenge? Not only a challenge but salvation at the end? A chance to leave your house, to jump head-first into something you don’t fully understand. The first and last time you’ll ever endeavour into the unknown. And at the end of this, you’ll find exactly what you’ve been looking for all along?”

“Your life will flow with the same ease as do the lives of all those you envy. This seems nonsensical, impossible perhaps and nothing I say here will change that, the only way for you to prove me wrong is to find what lays at the end.”

“/b/, I present you with Basin Hills. A gentleman’s challenge. Should you come to solve it, everything I’ve promised will be yours. Your first step is attached; everything you need to know is here. Good luck and I hope you’ve filled your tank.”

That was the first cryptic message by an anonymous poster. People didn’t tend to take notice at first, thinking it was a joke of some sort. Attached to the post was an image of a building and a skyline over a forest.

Interest in the subject heightened, however when an anonymous member found that by opening the image in a text editor the phrase “Oh, do mind the contrast. The desired few mingle with the many.”

Upon adjusting the contrast it was discovered the skyline had been hiding a set of numbers. These numbers were determined to be co-ordinates to what seemed to be a location off highway 905, Miami, Florida.

On June 16 Oversight left another message to 4chan that stated; “The package awaits at the cradle.”

So the cryptic message pointed to a building marked for demolition off highway 905 in Miami, Florida, referred to as the cradle. Furthermore Oversight seemed to imply that there was a package waiting for anyone brave enough to make the trip and retrieve the mystery package.

Almost a month past before Oversight posted a message on Encyclopaedia Dramatica stating;

“The package is still there, Anonymous. I’m disappointed in you. There’re going to demolish it soon. Oh, and before (Encyclopaedia Dramatica) goes down forever, we have a website. Project905.com.”

Project 905 clearly referred to the highway. Also on the website was a contact email; oversight@project905.com. The game master now had a name. Furthermore it also raised the question of who Oversight was. More specifically, was oversight actually more than one person? In the post on Encyclopaedia Dramatica Oversight said “I’m disappointed” but went on to say “we have a website.”

On August 10 a video appeared on youtube.com that seemed to be an eerie video taken with a handheld video camera inside an abandoned building. Images would flash on screen for a few seconds and the video ended. The video was apparently posted by Oversight and the only information attached was the project905 website URL in the subject bar of the video.

View the video here.

On August 13 someone on 4chan claimed to have gone to the cradle. But they also claimed all they found at the location were a few bags of rotting feces tied to a tree. Many people believed it and were willing to call it a day with the whole thing being an elaborate joke on anonymous. However when someone on 4chan sent Oversight an email about it he replied, scorning those who believed the story saying those who believed he went thought all this trouble just to give them a bag of crap would “never be ready for what he was offering.”

Two days later, today, the real package was found, but not without some drama to go along with it.

An Anonymous member who went by the name Floridanon was the one to pick up the package. This was his documentation as he recalled it on the paranormal (/x/) board on 4chan.org:

“Good news and bad news.”

“Bad news: Apparently, some Anonymous thought it would be funny to call in a bomb threat on the package. As I speak, the Monroe county bomb squad is in the process of destroying package #1; there's at least a dozen police cruisers and two bomb squad trucks in front of an alternate entrance to the location. Of course, once they finish their controlled demolition, all they'll find is a lone CD and a note from Oversight.”

“The good news: I got the package! I headed out earlier today around 8:00 a.m., and after braving the bugs (Which were terrible), I found the building specified. If I were in a hurry, I wouldn't have noticed it. Just a small black box placed under some sort of metal apparatus.”

“Inside the box was a plastic bag containing two identical blank CDs, and a note from Oversight congratulating me on finding the package. I took one of the CDs, put the note back in the bag, closed the box, and booked it. The place seems to be under demolition, so there were work crews around and I didn't want to get caught.”

“As I got into my car, I saw the first of several police cruisers blow past me with sirens blaring towards the alternate entrance (Which I assume was used for the demo crew). I went to get something to eat, and on my drive back past I saw all the cop cars and bomb squad.”

Floridanon discovered that on the disc was a video with a set of math equations, most of them incorrect, in rapid succession.

The video can be viewed here.

When Oversight caught wind of the package being retrieved project905.com was updated. In the address bar was a massage “Hope you don’t mind getting wet” and a black screen. If you highlight the screen with your mouse hidden in the page is the message “It’s in the math.”

Upon breaking down the video it was discovered that there was an image hidden in a single frame between 0:02 and 0:03 on the video. It seemed to be some boiler room that was flooded.

Amazingly the members of /x/ managed to break down the math puzzle and found more co-ordinates, again to an abandoned building off highway 905, this time in a national park. However there was more to come.

Three images were uploaded to 4chan’s /x/ board. One of a blue car and two of a young man walking by the highway. Just after the images were posted an anonymous member explained, in expected surprise, that those were his friend, and the one who picked up the first package at the cradle.

He was being watched. And photographed.

The photographer revealed themselves to be Oversight. Oversight knew when he was going to pick up the package. And oversight was there when he did.

Someone from Anonymous plans to go to sight #2 either tonight or tomorrow morning. More updates to come as the plot thickens. Surly, Oversight will be waiting and watching.