Diner security tape¶
The diner security tape is a VHS recording from the Lonely Mountain Diner's camera that shows a gray van crew raiding the Douglas Pinball Emporium, and that Kurt copied and hid in a hollow tree.
| Type | Item (evidence) |
| Aliases | VHS tape |
| Holder | Kurt (original, on loan from the diner); a copy is hidden in the woods |
| Status | Original borrowed from the diner; backup copy hidden in a hollow tree |
| First appearance | Radford Horrors 04 |
Description¶
The tape comes from the camera at the Lonely Mountain Diner, across from the Douglas Pinball Emporium. The diner waitress (Sheila) said the camera had been "on the fritz lately," but she got it working and found the footage (Radford Horrors 04).
Properties¶
The diner closed at 1 a.m., and the waitress put the raid at around 4 or 5 a.m. The grainy footage shows a gray van pulling into the lot and five men getting out: one with a long brown ponytail, the rest with military haircuts, some with their faces covered. A non-human shadow moves inside the emporium's window. One man opens the lock, possibly with a bump key, and the men rush in. After a scuffle, three of them carry out two bags, and two minutes later the others carry out assorted equipment before the van peels out (Radford Horrors 04).
Kurt's Investigate a Mystery roll (10) on the question "What is being concealed here?" concluded that the crew was an organized cleanup team used to working together. The ponytailed man moved like an action-movie character rather than a fighter, and Andre said he looked like a LARPer, probably a boss playing soldier. The shadow was not human and seemed to be trying to get out as the door was opened (Radford Horrors 04). The crew matches the gray van crew.
History¶
Kurt won the waitress over with a Manipulate Someone roll (11), an apology for the mess Huell had made of her bathroom the day before, and a promised hundred-dollar tip. She let him take the tape on condition that it be replaced or returned before the team left town. Kurt wanted it copied right away because magnetic media is not stable. At Blockbuster Video, Andrew showed his badge and the clerk Harold let the team use the back-room VHS TV; they photographed the screen and made a copy of the tape. Kurt then walked twenty minutes into the woods and hid the copy in an evidence bag inside a hollow tree, deliberately avoiding any fixed location that could be wiped (Radford Horrors 04).
Harold told the team that a month and a half to two months earlier, while closing up, he had seen a homeless man dragged into a van with a ponytailed man nearby, which fit the account of Billy Thornton. The episode leaves open who employs the crew and what the shadow in the window was (Radford Horrors 04).