Who could they be, this hooded headline hacker with a knack for producing eye-catching copy?
Under the cover of darkness, someone - or something - armed with only a black marker pen, is stalking The Candy Box in Horsham’s Carfax.
The aim of this secretive scribe is nothing sinister - they just want to put a smile on faces.
It would seem that this nocturnal novelist is tired of bad news billboards, and merely wants to change them to something a little more irreverent, offbeat or wacky.
It doesn’t seem to be causing any offence, and the Candy Box manager, retail entrepreneur John O’Sullivan, said: “I find them quite hilarious. It makes people laugh so that person - whoever he, or she, may be - is doing something right.
“I leave the sign out at night when it’s sunny as it’s quite heavy to carry and bring into the shop, and whoever it is comes by at night and changes it.
“Whoever does it spruces up the dull headlines. I see people walking by laughing and pointing, and quite often people come in and say that they signs make their day.”
There have now been dozens of occasions where billboards have been changed, much to the joy of town centre shoppers.
Recently, one board revealed ‘Police Exhume Headless Chicken’, while a current one reports that the bronze swans in Swan Walk had died.
John has built up an in-depth character analysis of the pen-wielding perpetrator.
He said: “It’s obviously someone who lives very local, and has access to plain paper and a black board marker.
“Some people even suggest that it’s me doing it, but even though I like to think I’m mildly amusing, I just don’t have the time or the inclination to be walloping out a marker pen to deface these billboards.”
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