Popular Band Hid a Clue to a Buried Treasure in One of the Most Obvious Locations — and a 13-Year-Old Girl Figured It All Out

It started with a cryptic Facebook message and ended with a massive surprise hidden in the middle of the Nevada desert.

The band Imagine Dragons (authors of the hit "Radioactive") posted on their Facebook page on Tuesday a fairly odd message:

first rule of following directions: be PRECISE.

second rule of following directions: make sure your navigation tools are up to par.

third and final rule of following directions: the early bird catches the worm (there is only one worm, and it's alive and well). happy hunting

xxID

It included a picture of their upcoming album, "Smoke and Mirrors":

Lindsea Taylor, 13, saw the post an had in idea: What if the picture itself contained a clue to whatever fans were told to hunt for?

In the upper left hand corner, she noticed some numbers written backwards.* If you look at them in the mirror, they give a series of numbers.

"I zoomed in on the picture, and I found the numbers,” she told Deseret News, “and I just immediately, I was just like … these are coordinates."

The album cover the band posted on Tuesday. Notice the numbers in the upper left. (Source: Facebook)

Sure enough, Lindsea and her dad, who live in Florida, Googled the numbers and they led them to a location in the Nevada desert. Luckily, they had family in the area and sent them out on a quest.

That's where they discovered the jackpot.

The picture of the Nevada desert location where the band hid the treasure. (Source: Facebook)

Below the dirt, the band had hidden a signed guitar that the band once used, signed drumsticks and polaroids, and a pass granting her two tickets to every single show on the band's new tour:

"Two free tickets!" Lindsea told Deseret.

"I think it so cool,” she added. “I've never ever seen anybody else do something like this, and I think the fact they interact with their fans, it just creates a better relationship."

*UPDATE January 5, 2015:

Lindsea's dad emailed TheBlaze to correct the story slightly. The coordinates were not located in the upper left of the cover, but rather in the spider webs located below the hands:

The coordinates are actually located in the spider webs below the hands. (Source: Facebook)