Stacks of bricks suspiciously left unattended in riot hotspots across the US have protesters and journalists wondering whether the violent street clashes and widespread destruction is being orchestrated by hidden hands.

Under normal circumstances, its not everyday you see a large pallet of bricks sitting on a street corner, but reports of pallets of bricks turning up as if by magic in over half a dozen major cities over the weekend has investigators trying to get to the bottom of who may be giving rioters the tools they need to turn peaceful protests violent and wreak wholesale destruction.

A group of protesters in Dallas, Texas called attention to an unexpected pile of bricks near the city’s courthouse on Saturday.

“Ain’t no damn construction around here!” a demonstrator says in the clip, while another urges his fellow protesters to “do better.”

Brick sightings soon exploded across the Dallas area. Commentators had plenty of theories, claiming the rioters’ fairy godmother was Antifa, but no-one has delivered conclusive proof.

A Texas journalist called local government and revealed the city of Dallas was claiming ownership of the bricks, thus triggering a whole new round of speculation – smoking gun, or official incompetence?

The suspiciously located piles of bricks have been cited by podcaster Tim Pool, conservative organizer Charlie Kirk, and others covering the riots to support claims that outside interests and hidden hands are fueling the most destructive elements.

While the unrest began last Monday in Minneapolis, Minnesota triggered by the death of George Floyd, protests and violent riots have since spread across the country.

Another “researcher” has claimed to have uncovered a connection between the bricks appearing on sidewalks in Frisco, Texas and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates. The bricks were said to be delivered by a corporation called AcmeBrick, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, a holding company on whose board Gates sat until recently.

But according to the Frisco Police Department, the offending bricks were part of a “planned HOA construction project,” explaining they’d been removed “with permission” to be “returned at a later time.”

And the Kansas City Police Department warned citizens on the weekend to be vigilant and report the appearance of any new piles of bricks, warning they were lurking all over the city to be “used during a riot.”

New York City had its own mysterious brick incident in the East Village neighborhood on Saturday night, a rare event in a city under constant construction in which unattended building material tends to vanish in seconds.

Other images appeared to show police vehicles maneuvering the bricks into place.