Call it the case of the disappearing newspapers. After Fast Forward Weekly ran a news story last week about Calgary Farmers’ Market vendors frustrated with how the market is run, we were contacted by readers who said all copies of Fast Forward at the market mysteriously disappeared on Friday.

“As soon as my staff heard about the story, they went to try to go find one and they couldn’t,” says one vendor who asked to remain anonymous. “One of my staff just assumed it was gone, that people had grabbed them all. It was only later in the day that we found out that they’d been taken away.”

About 200 copies of the paper are dropped off at the market every Thursday. Several people who work at the market told Fast Forward the papers were promptly removed and apparently taken into an upstairs office. “By partaking in that kind of activity and pulling a paper off a shelf, it’s just kind of shining more light on the issue that was talked about in the article in the first place,” says a vendor employee who requested anonymity. “It’s pretty embarrassing, and not exactly what a farmers’ market should be about.”

Market board vice-president Scott Epple says he doesn’t “have a clue” about the missing papers. He directed Fast Forward to market president Rodney Bradshaw for further comment, but calls to Bradshaw weren’t returned.