The City of Lenoir Main Street Department is organizing a Haunted Halloween Mystery Heist in Downtown Lenoir, and the top prize is $1,000!

The game will draw visitors into Downtown and promote local businesses. Main Street Community Engagement Coordinator Matthew Anthony said the Haunted Halloween Mystery Heist is similar to Clue, but players will have to figure out who is planning to steal one of the famous sculptures in Downtown Lenoir and what sculpture they plan to grab.

“The scavenger hunt we did earlier this year was very popular and people had a lot of fun playing, so we decided to create a more dynamic and engaging game platform with higher stakes,” Anthony said. “The Haunted Halloween Mystery Heist will be a bit more involved and will require some sleuthing skills, but it’s family friendly and will be a lot of fun. Plus, there are big prizes.”

The game is played on a smart-phone app and will blend real world clues and augmented reality. Players get points for answering clues and completing challenges. Bonus points will be awarded for creativity. Big points are added for solving the mystery correctly, and the final calculation is the amount of time it takes a team to solve the mystery. The quicker the better. The first-place prize is $1,000. Second-place gets $350, and third gets $150.

“One example of the clues could be something like, ‘We saw several of the suspects, be they dead or alive, going into one of the buildings,’” Anthony said. “Players would then take a picture of the door, and the app would put fingerprints on the door, and players would have to match it to the suspect.”

Game play goes live Monday, Oct. 25, at 8:30 a.m. Registration is open. People can register and play until the game closes at midnight, Oct. 31. The registration fee is $10 for the first 100 teams that sign up. After those spots are filled, registration will go back to the regular price of $20.

The winners and the answer will be announced at 7:45 a.m., Nov. 1, on Kicks 103.3.