If you were in downtown Barrie on Saturday, you likely did a double take... or even a triple take!
While you may have thought you saw Tom Selleck dressed as your favourite '80s television private investigator, it was not actually Magnum P.I. you saw roaming Dunlop Street.
Instead, it was Laurie Book and her team, The Mighty Magnums, who, along with more than 100 other teams, were participating in the sold-out virtual murder-mystery hosted by UK-based CluedUpp Games.
“We got a Christmas gift from my sister and we have two teams participating. We (were) all invited to dress up, so we are the Mighty Magnums, and you will see a lot of different teams wandering around and doing the same thing," Book told BarrieToday. "Some of them are dressed up and some aren’t but it’s a lot of fun.
"We are trying to solve the murder, so it’s like a Jack The Ripper theme and we’ve got it pretty narrowed down to a couple of suspects, and I think we have identified the murder weapon already," she added.
Participants are given a map which shows them the location where suspects are located, explained fellow Mighty Magnum Carrie McKinnon, adding they walk to the indicated spot, their GPS pings and unlocks the suspect or witness for them to talk to.
“We get more information. You basically have to walk all around downtown and unlock everything to get all the information to solve the murder. We are loving the costumes and all the different groups," McKinnon said.
Barrie Five-O teamed up to try to solve the mystery, too, and while they had just started on their hunt for the “killer,” they were already having a blast.
“With COVID, we’ve all been locked down in our houses for so long so we decided we wanted a good reason to get outside and do something fun," Heath Crichton said.
"This is all designed by an online company, but it provides socially distanced fun outside and it’s all arranged for you. You just download the app, follow the clues and try to solve it,” Crichton added. “Definitely a lot of exercise and unexpected having to run at times, but we are definitely having fun… and getting our exercise and getting some fresh air.”
