So who stole Doc's diamond ore?

[melannen]

My current suspect is Etho.

1. He hasn't been on Hermitcraft much... but he has been on a little. Say, just enough to swap out a few ore blocks? He does a lot more completely off-camera play than most of the Hermits, too.
2. He's got a very different relationship with Doc than most of the other hermits and this would fit in pretty well; they've pranked each other before (like last season's anvil war.)
3. He's got the redstone knowledge.
4. I feel like the deliberately mis-spelled signs are more the sort of thing he'd do than most of the other possible suspects, and so is messing with the mail.
5. Cleo thinks it's him, and Cleo is usually right.

(that said against Etho: he seems to actually be super distracted from Hermitcraft, not just hanging out off-camera; and The Glitcher$ doesn't really feel like him.)

My secondary hypothesis is that it's somebody's Mission Possible, in which case it could be nearly anybody but I lean toward Impulse (and if it is an MP: Iskall is so getting sued.)

People I'm pretty sure it's not: Scar (there's good alibi evidence), Ren (he's very loyal to Doc), Cleo (she would have used a water bucket), Joe (he doesn't tend to start trouble on purpose), Skizz (pretty clearly had no idea what's going on.)

Comments

[schneefink]

The best argument against it being Joe is that, as he said, he would have replaced it with deepslate lapis blocks because it would be funnier ^^

Etho being the ore snatcher would be hilarious, and I'd love to see Doc's reaction. Good arguments for it, but I haven't even seen him log in on anyone's stream recently that I can recall, and you're right that The Glitcher$ doesn't sound like him.

I didn't think about Doc suing Iskall but now I hope it's a Mission Possible because that would be very funny xD

My current top suspect is Cub "Jingler" Cubfan135. He has the redstone knowledge, and he's a huge prankster who loves to mess with people. Also, Doc vs Cub would be hilarious. Doc is petty, and Cub is willing to go to great lengths for the bit.
Jevin is also a possibility, though I don't think he's been on much recently either.

[melannen]

Jevin's still been streaming fairly regularly, but he tends to stream alone and at times when nobody else is on (like his epic netherite beacon streams last season.) So he's a possibility, but his pranks tend to be targeted and I don't know why he'd target Doc, and also at least the last few seasons they're very flashy and very obviously him (see: the Death Scar.) I could see him doing the signs because the first time wasn't flashy enough, though, and the misspellings on the signs kind of feel like they could be him, so does The Glitcher$

Cub is also a top suspect for me, it's definitely something he'd do, but he's already got one secret prank going (all his hidden hideouts), he doesn't seem particularly interested in poking Doc, and also this is almost too *much* like the Jingler? Like I can't see Cub being that obvious unless he was trying to be obvious, and this person doesn't seem like they're trying to be obvious. But I think he is the person most likely to try to frame Scar and he fits the profile generally!

I think the best argument against it being Joe is that if he did it, it would be *weirder*. :p (Also if we accept that the misspelled signs are an attempt at a frame-up, I don't think Joe is the type to go for a frame-up.) But also unless Joe is running a massive double con, he was extremely busy moving around the time this started, and still barely has his new studio set up; he's mostly been hand-tearing-down a mountain just to unwind from all the offline stress. I watch a lot of his streams because they're on at the right times for me and I really don't think he had the mental energy for it.

[schneefink]

We just got almost two hours of Scar, Cleo, Ren, and later also Cub and Joe debating on stream who the ore snatcher is, it was great xD
I particularly liked Cleo's argument that they would've told everyone. And I'm intrigued by Joe blaming False. My own #1 suspect is still Cub, which made Ren basically showing him Doc's security system even funnier ^^
I'm also considering that it was multiple people: one person who to steal the first block, someone else to leave the signs etc.

[strikeslip]

"Cleo is usually right" is honestly a very convincing argument.