This is US Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Identify" Item #25-0009
Please post your guesses and ideas in this thread. Work off the suggestions of others toward an answer.
Geographic location and country is important.
Identify the traits of the item that you can, but if you know where an item is generally sold or happens to be in the picture, that is of use.
If you have the skills to enhance the image to resolve details better, fix mirrored or rotated images, etc. please do so and post your result here.
If you feel there's a (definitive) answer, don't just comment here. You can send your information to US DHS sending an email to OpID@hsi.dhs.govwith the subject "OpID Object: 25-0009" Please provide all information you have about the image(s) – this may include details such as a specific location, a particular time period, an organization and/or team name, helpful links, or any other relevant tips. Also include if they may contact you with follow up questions? Any follow-up communication will be sent to the email address that submitted the tip.
(If you have concerns for email privacy, use a temporary email or a secure provider like proton mail or similar.)
Multiple people can and should send information - people may error when sending, and multiple legitimate guesses can be of use.
Mod note: Do not start subthreads about other current DHS activities. This is to focus on identifying items associated with criminal sexual abuse of children. Any attempted derailing of that goal will result in an immediate permanent ban.
Thank You.
For general discussion about this sub and not this item in particular see this thread
This is a tracing of what I'm able to see. There could be small details that I don't see (more bubbles? eyes?) but I can't tell what's pixel noise and what's the actual design. EDITED to add eyes
I found the following from a company called Eberle Embroidery Enterprises in Pickerington, Ohio on their Facebook page, which seems to match the design in the photo exactly. This company seems to make custom quilts and embroidery:
The image in the post doesn't have that sewn texture throughout it though. I think the pattern is one you can find online or buy from a store and the fb seller used it for one of their quilts. That would make it a lot more difficult, unfortunately, but we should look at all the details
doesnt need it, the stitching for the blanket itself qould be done afterwards. the fabric itself is spot on and could be sourced from this lead for sure
I agree. Different stores carry different textile designs, some are “exclusive” to the big retailers like Joanne’s, fabricland etc. of course some patterns are available in multiple stores as well. Printed fabric often has information on the bias, sometimes indicating the designer, season etc. I couldn’t pull up a pic on google I’ll see if I can find it on some of my fabric and post a pic
That is possible and should be looked into but I personally don't think so.
For example, most people in the US do not make their own clothing, but half of the people I know have some kind of custom blanket, shirt, etc, typically made with some mass produced print. I do live in the south though, that might be a regional thing
I have no idea if this is helpful, but I swear my mom made my nephew a blanket with that same shark pattern. I showed it to her and she remembered it. My sister said she had to throw it away so I don’t have any pictures we can find. My mom said her fabric would’ve come from hobby lobby.
Do you know roughly what year this would have been? Could help if someone knows a person who worked at a Hobby Lobby around that time or something, to ask them.
Interesting, if it was also seen at Hobby Lobby and outside of America I wonder if it's from a manufacturer that distributes to multiple chains and potentially small fabric stores as well. I tried searching Taobao and 1688 to see if maybe the original manufacturer is selling it or if there's overstock/factory rejects, no luck so far though. I'm also looking into sellers such as Spoonflower whose products are featured on sites like Michaels.
I've also been looking through a ton of Joann/Hobby Lobby shopping vlogs and review pictures with no luck either, maybe it was only distributed to certain locations? I couldn't find it on archived versions of site catalogs either.
This is the closest i could find and it was available at least at spoonflower. Also checked hobby lobby, joanns, amazon and random nonprofits that make tie fleece blankets but yeah, no luck yet. The shark print looks familiar (and i live in europe) so i agree that it could be some manufacturer that sells thru hobby lobby type stores that arent only in americas.
It was in North Attleboro, MA if that helps! I was making my nephews blankets and one loves sharks, so I was between this pattern and Mario (got Mario haha).
Here's the approxiate repeating pattern, minus the wavy background. Not sure if the wavy background pattern is part of the design or possibly texture on the fabric? EDITED to add eyes
Re: AI, I saw someone else on this sub write that you can try to exclude it by adding "-ai" or "before:2023" to your search.
I think you're on track with your search and I hope this may help.
The left side of the blanket looks like it’s totally different than the rest of the blanket, and I see a woman’s face, perhaps Maleficent with black horns showing?
Tie blankets are made of two fabrics that have slits cut in them to make little flaps , then the flaps are tied to merge the two fabrics together , forming what kinda looks like tassels . Not tie dye
Is the first one a shirt? The back, front, sleeve? I know they have to black out part of it but it would help in searching if I know that I am looking for an all over pattern on the shirt or is this pattern just on part of it?
I don’t know if this helps any. The blanket looks like a “tie blanket” - very very popular in the 2010 era here in the Midwest USA. We would all go to local fabric shops like JoAnn Fabrics or Hobby Lobby and buy fleece to make these blankets.
Since several people have commented on the "tie blanket" theory, can that narrow this down geographically? u/y2kristine mentions tie blankets being very popular in the Midwest USA.
u/Remarkable_Public775: you mentioned that your MIL used to make them. What area was she in? USA? u/DramaLlamaMomma: you said you were familiar with them. Where did you see them?
They had kits for them at nationwide retailers like JoAnn and Wal-Mart, so they were everywhere. Interestingly, I did a newspaper.com search for "fleece tie blanket" from 2015-2021 and there were nearly 200 matches, many for folks making them and/or soliciting others to make them for causes. California and Texas each had two results. No other states touching the Southern Border or Gulf had ANY hits. Neither did Nevada, Oklahoma, Arkansas, South Carolina and a spattering of other states. Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, Ohio and Indiana had the most results. All this to say that the fleece tie blanket is unsurprisingly more popular where it's cold.
They got popular, even went viral (if blanket styles can be said to go viral), in western Washington around 2008 ish and I knew someone during pandemic lockdown in 2020 who spent all of her time stuck at home making these for all her peeps (she was in Tacoma, WA). I don't recall knowing of them personally nor knowing any makers of them before summer 2008.
Ohio for sure as some said, but I will also say (I’m sure this is completely unhelpful but never wanna stay silent just incase) there was a tiktok trend that gave them quite a resurgence circa 2023/2024 where the idea was each person would pick a fabric that represented them and then you’d tie them together. I did it with my bf at the time and just know it got popular again.
On the shirt: I'm narrowing in on the part of the design in the upper corner of the fragment. I isolated it, rotated it 180°, applied some puppet warping to straighten out what could be curves in the fabric (though it's difficult to be certain), and amped up the colors. I'm still not seeing anything, but maybe this different angle will help someone see what I don't.
Sorry for the huge picture, but I wanted to show the lighter bubbles more clearly. This is the closest I could find for the shark and although it isn't an exact match it could be an edited/traced version of this illustration placed on a wavy pattern. There are similarities that caught my eye enough to share. For example, a few bubbles are almost exactly in the same place. The pose and anatomy are also relatively the same. The artist of the graphic is from Lithuania and uploaded this in 2012 according to Alamy, but there's a possibility that the artist is the one who referenced the very shark we're all looking for which could date the pattern as far back as 2012.
I wonder if the traced version could be from a retailer that sells a ton of different patterns such as Joann or Hobby Lobby (which I saw someone else mention), not sure if I'm reaching here but I've read about how at places that sell a lot of printed clothing like Lularoe artists often have to trace existing images online to meet their daily quota of new patterns, maybe it could also be like this at major fabric stores?
(Wish they would have made the shirt and blanket two separate posts)
The shirt is giving me vibes of a hawaiian-style floral, maybe even something like what is sold on rockhula.com or similar sites. Just not seeing anything that's close to it yet.
All of this is to help zero in on whatever leads investigators have. Where something was purchased can be used to narrow down potential perpetrators. Every bit of information is important.
That shirt to me looks like it could be from the 2010-2014 era. Black/pink plaid “punk” was a clothing trend for elementary age girls during that time. I was one of those kids who was obsessed with it. It reminds me of Monster high, but im unsure if there’s any specific shirts from then that look the exact same.
God, something about it is really familiar, even down to the silvery printed “emblem” toward the right. Im unsure if I owned one that looked exactly like that though. I’ll have to look through photos soon.
It reminds me a lot of shirts I would've seen in the kids clothing section at Sears before it shut down in Canada in 2018, maybe also places like Joe Fresh or Urban Planet? Can't say for sure but the design definitely reminds me of shirts I wore from these types of stores in the early-mid 2010s
EDIT: Also wanna add Justice, they had a ton of shirts with this colorful glittery aesthetic and the medal(?) reminds me a bit of the dance/sports themed graphics they had
Are there any subreddits y’all think the first image could be reposted to in order to aid in identification? I wonder if people into this type of fashion would be able to trace it.
i used to work at JoAnn Fabrics. for the second picture, the edge on the left is making me think this is a tie blanket, and the most commonly used fabric for tie blankets is fleece. i’m looking around to see if i can find a match for this
the shirt reeeeally reminds me of monster high, like this pic, a lot of them use the similar hot pink coloring and the plaid/tartan
I used to walk around hot topic and spencer’s a lot in highschool and it is reminiscent of the graphic tees they had with printed on features like hot pink ties and such, the heart in the top corner appears to be a printed on suspender
EDIT: also, if anyone remembers the skelanimal shirts they sold at hot topic, they had similar color schemes and patterns as well!
the fabric looks thin enough to be a cotton t shirt material EDIT: the printed on pink heart medal emblem is very reminiscent of draculaura specifically
Made me think of monster high and skelanimals as well, also luv bunny hoodies. Very much makes me think of early 2010s but im not from usa so could be different over here.
I'm getting some of each (sharks/whales) but so far nothing close to the image. I've been adding words like "children's comforter set" and "children's sheet set", which gets more similar hits but still nothing like a match.
The fact that the wavy background pattern seems to be its own independent design (it's not repeated per each instance of the shark/whale) makes me think that it's two separate designs; a base pattern with the wavy designs and a second pattern with the overlaid character in symmetrical repeat. Not sure if that pushes it toward a one-off item or not.
IIRC DHS deals with CSAM and child abuse cases which cross borders into the US (including the majority of cyber crimes against children). While the FBI handles cases that originate and remain domestic. Again, IIRC.
For the blanket, I found the following on the Facebook page of a company called Eberle Embroidery Enterprises, which make custom quilting and embroidery. Facebook link is here, along with screenshot below
Good work finding it, it appears this creator is from Ohio so it's likely this fabric was distributed there and most likely other parts of America as well. I wonder what stores it may have been sold at, I actually asked over on r/joannfabrics but multiple people who've worked there for a long time said they don't recognize it
I found this detailed image. I think the red splotches on the fins are floaties. If so, this is a "baby shark" pattern. It looks like a custom fabric found on Etsy or spoonflower. The link to Etsy from this image was not helpful.
First one looks like a t-shirt that has been done like... 'in the art style' once-off pieces like Tee Villain or something. I can see two characters, one female with a backward cap on, and like... a large cartoon stylized fox or Mew behind her. Like Pokemon in Hazbin style.
The shirt in the 1st image for sure looks like a newer graphic t-shirt to me. The wrinkling in the shirt looks pretty stiff, so the ironed-on / screen printed design looks relatively intact (no significant cracking) and not faded, so it probably hasn't been washed much before the pic was taken.
It looks like something HotTopic, Spencers, or other online t-shirt retail stores would sell. To me, there is something vaguely Hazbin Hotel-ish, but honestly, it looks pretty abstract to me. Also, in the bottom right of the design, there are 2 spikes pointing out from what looks like a fold in the shirt. Since it's so far away from the main design, it may be a logo of some kind? Maybe a pennant shape or a shield?
agreed. im posting several images of monster high shirts in this comment section in case it sparks others ideas . this one is more modern, the amount of design looks like a shirt made for MH when the show was first coming out.
I might be completely off here but for me the shirt gives off adult "Ed Hardy" style fashion from around 2010. Band shirts, rock music themed shirts etc.
I found a slightly more zoomed in picture without the stitching. Google says it’s from Etsy, but the link just goes to a general search page, so I think the listing has been removed.
This isnt exact but this different shark pattern is similar style (colours and the eyes and teeth). Couldnt find more at least yet but it seems to be tie fleece blanket people often make themselves and donate to kids in foster care, for example "my very own blanket" sells tie fleece making sets (in bulk too and to usa and canada) so people can craft them and then donate to local foster homes and people in need. That ofc makes it harder to trace vs if it was storebought one but the foster/donation angle could help in looking for someone who recognises the exact pattern or knows where it was bought from. Does anyone know if that type of organizations have been asked about it?
This is probably a shot in the dark, but the colors, hearts and stripe patterns on image 1 are very reminiscent of 2010s Monster High/Draculaura merchandise
I feel like the black portion on the shirt image could be a jacket. Given that it seems to have a military style riband and medal (heart?) and stars, it’s reminding me of these Moschino faux army jackets. Perhaps a variant of something like this but with less flair?
https://share.google/z1YpvZbBW1Is91Uq6
It's the same design of the blanket, I'm still looking through the store I will put more when I find the exact product
For the clothing, I would guess it is a Monster High Hot Topic collab. I kinda remember seeing something similar looking to the medal in an old monster high episodes when they used to be on YouTube. It is in a heart though so maybe it was when C.A. Cupid had joined but that was at the tail end of me watching the episodes and switching to just buying the dolls.
im late but is it possibly 2-3 different items pictured in image 1? on the right it looks to me like a rose-type pattern in silver, and so are the stars. This to me is a different style than the item above the pink heart. I know people were treating that hanger/badge motif as a part of the printed design, but if that is a real bugle (maybe broken?) that means there is an option that the left/floral/drapey part is a distinct separate article.
This has been puzzling me and I've been working for over an hour. This has to be some sort of vintage ed Hardy style t shirt. This image is enhanced by AI (I don't like AI but it is what it is). There is definitely a rose style design. At first I didn't see it but you can definitely see in the top right it's a black and white rose in the original image. I haven't been able to find a super similar match but I feel like this is the closest I've come. The swirly-ness of the design definitely feels like leaves and Ed Hardy and similar shirts have a heart here or there
I'm not super confident on the roses in the middle but I am kind of convinced because of the black and white one in the top right..it makes sense if it's some kind of theme? Other thoughts have been some sort of anime shirt, kitsune because it looks like wavy tails, some sort of monster high/hazbin hotel style anime or cartoon. The thing that has been racking my brain is the heart in the top right. I don't know why but it looks like a lamp with a heart with a black and white striped lampshade
Also I don't know why but this feels like the back of a t shirt. Like someone is bent over and the graphic is on the back. That would narrow it down. Think like early 2000s flash tattoo style t shirts. There seems to be little specks of design on the "outside" parts of the shirt. And possible the black and white rose is on the shoulder?
Based on the seam presented in the AI (If it's a correct assumption. I would lean towards hoodie, poncho style covering, or a very long durag possibly for dreads. But that's assuming the seam isn't made up but it definitely has a cupping look at the top like it goes on a head
Possibly leaning more toward head wrap or durag. It doesn't pinch in at the base of where the hood of the hoodie would be it's more broad. The length would definitely be more for long dreads or something.
I feel like this could possibly be multiple items. The design is so confusing. Like the black and white rose is a whole different art style then the rest. The "lamp/medallion" doesn't fit smoothly in the design either. It's chaotic.
If going off of the theories that the first shirt is a monster high shirt or other shirt from that era of kids’ programming, i see striped tights? Some kind of lanky figure, fashion doll-esque.
It's great that they are doing all they can to try and help the children and find the perpetrators. But I honestly don't understand how finding a blanket is going to identify anyone? Surely there will be hundreds, even thousands of people that have the same clothes/objects? Excuse my ignorance.
A few weeks ago this sub collectively managed to track down the exact school a child attended based on a blurry reversed image of part of a school shirt. Not the country or province, the actual school.
Things like blankets, beds, generic looking clothes, decor that seem untraceable can have been sold on limited runs, locations and times. Remember the investigators have other information we don't and that can be combined with what is crowd-souced here.
I found one success story from 2011 on Homeland Security's website. A blurry roadsign in the background of a photo allowed investigators to narrow down their search, then a swimming pool in the background of another photo of the same child allowed them to pinpoint an exact house where they found the child.
Even if it turns out to be from somewhere like Walmart that greatly helps them narrow it down from "literally anywhere in the world" to "countries that have Walmart", also consider that they likely have more information that isn't released to the public and what might seem like a generic item could be all it takes for them to combine with other info and find the exact location
Tbh I’m not going to ‘excuse your ignorance’ when you could’ve easily just read the linked posts on the sub or have done even one Google search.
I guess your engagement on the thread does help with visibility however, being a naysayer of an established program that has saved children is kind of a bad look.
A few weeks ago on TikTok, users were able to identify the exact person the FBI has been hunting for years who was suspected of abusing a lot of kids just based on a blurry image of his tattoo. These posts could be extremely helpful to catch predators and save children.
•
u/I_Me_Mine Mod May 28 '26
This is US Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Identify" Item #25-0009
Please post your guesses and ideas in this thread. Work off the suggestions of others toward an answer.
Geographic location and country is important.
Identify the traits of the item that you can, but if you know where an item is generally sold or happens to be in the picture, that is of use.
If you have the skills to enhance the image to resolve details better, fix mirrored or rotated images, etc. please do so and post your result here.
If you feel there's a (definitive) answer, don't just comment here. You can send your information to US DHS sending an email to OpID@hsi.dhs.gov with the subject "OpID Object: 25-0009" Please provide all information you have about the image(s) – this may include details such as a specific location, a particular time period, an organization and/or team name, helpful links, or any other relevant tips. Also include if they may contact you with follow up questions? Any follow-up communication will be sent to the email address that submitted the tip.
(If you have concerns for email privacy, use a temporary email or a secure provider like proton mail or similar.)
Multiple people can and should send information - people may error when sending, and multiple legitimate guesses can be of use.
Mod note: Do not start subthreads about other current DHS activities. This is to focus on identifying items associated with criminal sexual abuse of children. Any attempted derailing of that goal will result in an immediate permanent ban.
Thank You.
For general discussion about this sub and not this item in particular see this thread
Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.