Banana peel on the concrete background. Photo: 123rf
We've had our fair share of neighbourhood mysteries here in Aotearoa. Remember the teabags left along the top of a fence in Christchurch? The flavoured milk left on the pump at a petrol station in Alexandra? More recently, there were romance novels being left in letter boxes in Lower Hutt.
Well, we are not alone.
For over a year, residents in the English town of Beeston have been puzzled by a plate of peeled bananas that appears on the same street corner every month.
Reporter Harry Stevens had been following the story for BBC Nottingham.
Stevens told Afternoons they started investigating the mystery after they found a post on Facebook.
"[The bananas] come back on the second of every month.
"So on a street corner of a street called Abbey Road, in Windsor Avenue, about 16 - 20 peeled bananas appear on a brand new plate on the second of every month like clockwork.
"They appear in the middle of the night and no one knows whose putting them out, no one has any solid evidence of whose putting them out and why."
Abbey Road, in Windsor Avenue, where a plate of 16 - 20 peeled bananas appear every month. Photo: Goggle maps
Stevens said it had become a mystery that had gripped the UK and a lot of places world-wide.
He said there were mixed reactions from Beeston residents, a "nice area" that he said was full of lots of families.
"I think it's a mixture of some people who just aren't loving the fact that there's a plate of fruit which is left, and although the fruit usually does get moved, it does sometimes sit there for a few months and kind of rots and decomposes.
"But others I think quite enjoy the attention and especially now that it has had its moment of fame, I think some people nearby are really enjoying it."
Stevens said for a moment the location of the plate of bananas was even a certified landmark on Google maps, but was quickly removed.
He said he thinks it could be a potential tourist attraction.
"I spoke to a couple who travelled three and a half hours from a different part of the UK to have a look.
"Lots of people are interested."
There was no clear evidence as to why the plate of bananas was placed on the corner.
"No one to my knowledge has done a stakeout yet," he said.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
