Who Stole My Friends' Car?? Help!

Question

Help! Last night my friends' new car was stolen!

I'm pretty sure it was one of the gangs that hang around here, and they've been a bit cocky. Where the car was parked, they spray-painted the following on the ground.

But I can't make head or tale of it, and nor can the police. Can you help?

So you found out who stole it, how about trying to find them?

You did not just use Comic Sans. And JPEG artifacts too! Shocking. — ArtOfCode, May 09 '17 at 16:54
Red herring. Now, the actual answer may be simply rotating a few of the letters to produce ALONE. — Paag, May 09 '17 at 16:54
@CalvT: Just saying, is any computer needed for the solution ? — Paag, May 09 '17 at 16:56
@n_palum I don't think that youtube channel with the same name has any connection with this puzzle. — Paag, May 09 '17 at 16:57
@IanMacDonald that's a follow up puzzle if my imagination works enough :) — CalvT, May 09 '17 at 18:45

Beastly Gerbil · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-10T15:38:23.053

32

The gang who stole your friends' car are called

THE BAD LADZ

Thanks to @n_palum for helping in chat

If you

Type it into imgur reversed (The name of the image if you click edit is 'I'm sometimes the last gear, sometimes the first' and the last gear is the gear to REVERSE [Thanks @Techidiot]) you get the following: https://i.stack.imgur.com/3Z0LA.png

Text:

YnJvd3NlcnMud3RmL3B1enpsZS5odG1s

Using Base64 decoder (thanks @n_palum) you get the following website:

http://browsers.wtf/puzzle.html

(The console output is 32543 [Thanks @KritixiLithos] which is the OP's user ID)

Which has

the word 'Of'

The tab name is

Bottom

Giving

Bottom Of 32543

At the bottom of the OP's profile (at least at the time, may be removed in future) is a barcode

which decodes to

ZALD ABD ETH

which is an anagram of

THE BAD LADZ

edited May 10 '17 at 15:38

answered May 09 '17 at 16:59

Beastly Gerbil

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If you use a Base64 Decode you get this URL: browsers.wtf/puzzle.html – n_plum May 09 '17 at 17:07
If it is at all relevant, the console output is 32543 – user41805 May 09 '17 at 17:10
@KritixiLithos is very relevant that is the OP's user ID – Beastly Gerbil May 09 '17 at 17:14
15

This is one sophisticated gang – ESR May 10 '17 at 00:22
1

@EdmundReed And OP seems to be involved with them ... :D. – May 10 '17 at 09:00
I do hope OP never changes their profile to invalidate this puzzle.. – Weckar E. May 10 '17 at 11:24
@WeckarE.I do intend to try and keep it there, but I asked Beastly to put it in the answer in case I accidentally remove it and loose the link – CalvT May 10 '17 at 11:35
@WeckarE. added a note in the puzzle too – Beastly Gerbil May 10 '17 at 14:57

Who Stole My Friends' Car?? Help!

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