Hi r/switzerland,
​I’m posting this on behalf of a colleague who had a very strange encounter in Lausanne recently.
​While he was walking in the city, a man approached him and physically shoved this piece of paper deep into his pocket. It wasn't handed out like a normal flyer or prospectus; it was aggressively put there, and the guy just walked away. My colleague was weirded out but kept it, and later gave it to me because he knows I like puzzles.
​At first glance, it looks like gibberish or some sort of code. However, upon closer inspection, we started finding distinct German words hidden within the text.
​Here is what we have spotted so far:
​LAUSANNE (visible near the bottom)
​VAN
​GROSS
​UNSER (appears multiple times; initially looked like "Uberger")
​ZEITUNG (Newspaper)
​DER
​It’s definitely not a standard political or commercial flyer. It feels like a puzzle, a cipher, or something stranger. I tried running it through basic AI tools without much success.
​Does anyone recognize this? Is it some kind of local ARG (Alternate Reality Game), a known eccentric spreading messages, or something else entirely?
​Thanks for any insights!



—
ZeColorOfPomegranate

24 comments

  1. Looks scary. If it were me I just call the police on him and make a complaint against his anti-social behavior.

  3. Looks like germanic runes to me, but I put it through Grok quickly and it looks like someone just stylized French in this “runic” way, can’t help you with deciphering it tho.

  4. Just from memory, there was a post a long time ago with the same symbols. Most of those letters are basically gibberish. I think the conclusion was that the person might be struggling with a mental health issue.

  5. Seems like something that belongs in the Musée de l’art brut.

  7. Is it an original or is it a copy? I mean the „runen-like-characters“, not the real estate ad

  8. Either someone’s really into languages but I suspected its just Ai generated.

    The “middle” part of the text looks to be Elder Futhark, but no idea about the rest

  9. The rest is in Futhark alphabet.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Futhark

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Futhark

    I don’t expect them to know old germanic/norse languanges, so most likely they still use German/French, but use the futhark alphabet.

    The way this was given though suggests more a psychotic reason rather than a logic based puzzle.

    Most likely some *”It’s aliens! Lizzard people, the Norse Gods are alive and live in Lausanne. The Aliens/CIA and deep state can’t read futhark! “* kind of revelation.

    I wouldn’t spend too much on it, I doubt it shows relevant secrets nor treasure map. But do with it what you will.

  10. The thing on top looks a bit like „unserer??? Mittwoch 2025 sept 03”

  12. These are runes, but some are mirrored. So you can try to write it out in our latin letters first and then decide what to do with it. You can also just call one of the numbers?

  13. Honestly, some stuff in the beginning looks like German words written out with similar looking runes (below ad: Unserer Anzeige, Mittwoch 3 Sept 2025). But I cannot decipher the rest
    Edit: i also recognise Erwerber (botton) and Lausanne (left).

  14. I like how they added a random eszett in there. Must have been a lost German.

  15. Me too. That’s the problem. Someone heard a similar story ? The event was slightly off

  17. Maybe it’s telling you to stop killing your lungs with mystery chemicals from china? Idk

  19. Seems like what we call runic. It was used in a little book of dragonology my sister and I had. If you are motivated you can probably traduct this

  20. That guy is well known and hands those papers to randoms.

    It is gibersih mix of latin alphated (stylized to look ancient) and runic script (futhark, a=ansuz, b=berkanen, etc.)

    **Translation (top section)**

    WÜNDERST [EUCH] ÜBER UNSER KOMMEN

    **Middle Section (core)**

    WENN DU ZEITUNG AUF DEN BODEN WIRFST ODER DEINE ZIGARETTEN RESTEN

    **Bottom**

    …GROB ANZEIGT… IM FERNSEHER… ZUSAMMEN

    This is the 10th letter I saw from him and he is using this apartment every single time. I guess he is somehow obseessed with that apartment or has a legal/financial dispute going on?

    He is everytime using a mix of french & german.

    Sometimes having dates (2025,2026, 2027) and license plates/phone numbers. I imagine those “dates” are “deadlines”?

  22. Drug dealing or other underground shaddy organizations came to my mind, like maybe the person goal was to give a meeting details to a “new recruit” but he didn’t know whom exactly to give it, just some general description: such height, such jacket, around this place and time…

  23. Hey you met the rune guy!! He is an eccentric going around and selling tea. He has a youtube channel, and a website of sort. You can find him under “Worisjule 1”. I haven’t interacted with him much, and I certainly haven’t drunk his tea, but he doesn’t seem like a bad guy.

  24. Why would an apartment listing in Lyon have a 076 number attached to it

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