Shut your eyes, Marion

August 28, 2024 12:32 PM

Disturbing object unearthed in California's Mojave Desert mystifies experts Slowly, they began to unearth a corroded metal box resembling a small casket. When they flipped it open, they saw two crimson runes emblazoned on the side that resembled one of the Nazi Party’s most infamous symbols: two stark S’s that look like a pair of lightning bolts. (SLSFGate)
posted by stevil (35 comments total)

2024 Bingo!

[too soon?]
posted by chavenet at 12:36 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]

Well, buried is a good place for anything with that symbol.
posted by Ickster at 12:46 PM on August 28 [13 favorites]

Melted down and recycled is even better, but buried would work.
posted by Ickster at 12:46 PM on August 28 [6 favorites]

This has "hoax" written all over it, honestly.
posted by Dr. Wu at 12:59 PM on August 28 [64 favorites]

I dunno, a lot of people on all sorts of fringes live in that desert. Doesn't seem that surprising that either an original Nazi or a Neo-Nazi would be buried there.
posted by coffeecat at 1:03 PM on August 28 [3 favorites]

buried would work

Dug up again, not so much.
posted by flabdablet at 1:05 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]

Okay to make this seem a little less mysterious: there’s a large military base out there that opened in 1952. There’s still a lot of military and ex military people living out that way. That someone would have some weird memorabilia from WW2 and not be sure how to dispose of it seems likely.

Also if you are anywhere near 29 Palms marine base and see something that looks like half a missile on the ground it might be half a missile that got lost during training. And if you have an unexploded ordnance person with you and ask “Hey, can you take a look at this?” they will completely loose their shit and make all the biologists you are in the middle of a very interesting desert tortoise survey move a quarter mile away until it can be safely removed. This will mess up the survey schedule. Management will argue why didn’t anyone plan for explosive related delays on a survey that required an unexploded ordnance person for safety in the first place.
posted by lepus at 1:05 PM on August 28 [119 favorites]

Yes, there are lots of Marines and desert tortoises out there. You don't want to scare them because they'll empty their bladder as a defense mechanism and become dangerously dehydrated. The same goes for the tortoises.
posted by credulous at 1:20 PM on August 28 [68 favorites]

Military history collectors just happened to dig the exact spot where military history artifacts are found. What luck
posted by hypnogogue at 1:21 PM on August 28 [8 favorites]

Are we just regurgitating Reddit posts now?

Anyways, in the original post the box was deduced to be a desert training aide (ie. weight to lug around) for Marine Scout Snipers (SS) who a few years back edgelord-appropriated the Nazi SS symbol as their own. There apparently was a minor kerfuffle back in the Bush 2 years concerning it.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 1:23 PM on August 28 [40 favorites]

not to cast aspersions or anything but how close is this place to ski resorts in Taos
posted by Kattullus at 1:28 PM on August 28

Chris Rodda, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s research director, told SFGATE. “I’ve also never seen a red ‘SS’ symbol in any context, so that’s odd.”

This was found in Southern California, not Central Europe. This isn't some lost Nazi treasure. This is a meth-dealing biker's old lockbox.
posted by thecjm at 2:03 PM on August 28 [12 favorites]

This was found in Southern California, not Central Europe. This isn't some lost Nazi treasure.

Murphy Ranch's Law
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:56 PM on August 28

They way it was found sounds like hoax to me, but certainly a lol of strange stuff happens out in the desert. I would says 33% chances the guys hid it themselves, 3O% marines, 30% local bikers/tweaks, neo-nazis. 7% chance of ghosts or aliens
posted by CostcoCultist at 2:59 PM on August 28 [3 favorites]

Who were the mystified experts? The two young men who dug it up?
posted by Ideefixe at 3:04 PM on August 28

Made by KISS fans who never got around to the start of the logo...
posted by kaibutsu at 3:05 PM on August 28 [4 favorites]

Metafilter: Are we just regurgitating Reddit posts now?

(hi, yup that's me, infrequent poster, sufficiently chastened)
posted by stevil at 3:10 PM on August 28 [15 favorites]

Movie prop
posted by djseafood at 4:09 PM on August 28

original post

the linked article doesn't reference the original post (but it's here if you want to look at Reddit) and they did their own reporting.
posted by stevil at 4:29 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]

Are we just regurgitating Reddit posts now?

Anyways, in the original post

You could've just linked to it instead of shitting on the guy, jesus.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:47 PM on August 28 [38 favorites]

One of the most clever post titles I’ve read here in awhile.
posted by edithkeeler at 5:05 PM on August 28 [15 favorites]

Post references the movie that finishes this way. I'm more worried about the film that starts this way.
posted by cult_url_bias at 5:05 PM on August 28

Yeah this sure is an inciting incident for a Hellboy comic story. Could be a one-shot. Could be a series. Feels more like a one-off to me.
posted by egypturnash at 5:16 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]

Top. Men.

i.e., Thiel refreshed off an entirely voluntary blood donation from a young twink
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:29 PM on August 28 [5 favorites]

Bikers!?
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 6:40 PM on August 28

You could've just linked to it instead of shitting on the guy, jesus.

Jesus is on here!? Man, and I thought Scalzi was a big deal.

Seriously though, I enjoy this kind of weird news and appreciate this post.
posted by pattern juggler at 6:48 PM on August 28 [2 favorites]

Not a huge point, and maybe there's evidence the Marines SS thing goes back to Bush 2, but the article I found was from 2010, Obama Era.
posted by symbioid at 7:59 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]

lepus I have also 100% received a UXO training that included the information:
1) If you find UXO you must call it in, and then stay nearby so you can point it out to the disposal team (even though I was carrying a professional GPS logger)
2) The nearest disposal team is at a different facility, so you will definitely be stuck there for like 6+ hours.

Like yours, my budget failed to include time for waiting around for the disposal team. I concluded that I would stick to finding endangered species, and not find any UXO, thank you.
posted by agentofselection at 8:35 PM on August 28 [6 favorites]

i read this on SFGate today. i immediately assumed some bike gang buried one of their member's cremains in the desert. a box of "dirt" with a bouquet of fake flowers in it...
but, what do i know.
posted by lapolla at 8:36 PM on August 28

And if you have an unexploded ordnance person with you and ask “Hey, can you take a look at this?” they will completely loose their shit and make all the biologists you are in the middle of a very interesting desert tortoise survey move a quarter mile away until it can be safely removed. This will mess up the survey schedule.

posted by lepus at 4:05 PM on August 28

You can't fool me, you were napping!!
posted by aws17576 at 8:57 PM on August 28 [9 favorites]

aws17576 you no idea how hard I’m laughing at your comment!
posted by lepus at 9:14 PM on August 28 [3 favorites]

anyway
posted by philip-random at 11:13 PM on August 28

@symbiod Yeah, I got the administration wrong. Was Obama. Irrelevant to TFA nonetheless.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 11:57 PM on August 28 [1 favorite]

Kiss buried Gram Parsons there.
Someone hauled his ashes.
Bikers, probably.
posted by mule98J at 6:53 AM on August 29 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the post, stevil. I saw this weird story here on MetaFilter first, thanks to you.
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:00 PM on August 29 [3 favorites]