The op shop staff opened the lockbox to find about two dozen receipts with fantasy notes written on the back. Photo / Supplied
The mystery author of a fantasy story found inside a lockbox donated to a Wellington op shop has been found thanks to the power of social media.
But just how the story notes made it into the lockbox and away from the author remains in question.
The box was donated to Aunty Dana's Op Shop in Newtown earlier this month, and when staff shook it they could tell it was full of paper.
"We thought it might be cash," said manager Randy Wolf.
The code they'd been given for the box didn't work, but another staff member was able to crack it.
"We opened it and it was a whole bunch of receipts," Wolf said.
They discovered what appeared to be fantasy fiction notes written on the back of roughly two dozen receipts in the box.
"I thought it was noted for maybe a Dungeons and Dragons campaign," said Wolf, who spotted mentions of a paladin and other fantasy tropes.
But it turned out to be ideas for a story the author was writing at the time.
"I thought it was pretty neat so I just decided to tweet about it."
They were able to determine the receipts were from New World supermarket, between 2018 and 2019.
"I've worked in retail so I know how it is when you get bored and you're not really doing anything."
Wolf thought the author might have been a checkout worker who had some spare moments to jot down their story notes. The receipts also had the name Cameron on them.
Someone who worked at the supermarket during that period told Wolf they knew someone of that name who had worked there too, and they were able to make contact on Facebook.
Wolf will be meeting the author on Friday to hand over the notes.
"He said that he thought that they were gone, that he had lost them, so he didn't really give me details about how they would have ended up in the lockbox."
Wolf, who described themselves as "a bit of a nerd" and an illustrator was looking into some type of collaboration with the mystery author when they meet up this week.
Inmates at New Zealand's prison will have the same menu as last year on Christmas Day.