Residents of Austin, Texas have quite the mystery. One particularly deep pothole had been a pain for drivers in South Austin for years. Then one day it was gone. Someone or another had filled it in with basic supplies from Lowe’s.

A member of the Austin forum on Reddit posted a picture and asked, “Now who of y’all fixed the pot hole by the LA fitness…?” No commenters had an answer, but someone said, “Omg I was so happy to see this fixed. It was a gnarly one.”

The pothole-fixing streak didn’t end there. A long, thin crack in the same neighborhood was soon partially filled in. And drivers were doubly confounded.

Pedestrians actually had a better chance at solving the mystery than drivers. You see, next to every repaired pothole was a “QR code” internet link taped to an orange construction cone. Scan the QR code with your phone and you are directed to a GoFundMe page to pay down the funeral expenses of Reginald Hernandez.

Reginald was a single father of three kids. He died unexpectedly at 50 and, unfortunately, didn’t have any savings to cover his funeral expenses. His daughter, Kayla, put the $9,311 bill on her credit card. So she was able to bid her father farewell, but afterward she was deeply in debt.

Kayla said, “Unfortunately, I was the only one able to take care of (the funeral costs). It’s going to collect and accumulate interest while I’m working towards trying to pay it down. So, that’s extremely stressful.”

She started the GoFundMe page and asked her community for help. Donations trickled in, but it became obvious she’d need to cast a wider net. Then her boyfriend, Jorge Buendia, had a creative idea: Fill in pesky potholes and leave a QR code nearby. Their hope was that one good deed would lead to another.

Neither Buendia nor Hernandez had any experience in construction. They are both in healthcare. But Hernandez said, “We use that gym right there, LA Fitness. And we always see that hole and it really bothers us.” So they bought $100 of supplies, watched some YouTube videos, and “just went for it.”

Reddit users soon discovered the QR code near the filled-in pothole. One commenter said of Hernandez, “Not the hero we deserve, but the hero we need,” quoting a Batman movie. And the donations came rolling in.

Barry Smith gave $20 and said, “We don’t know each other but someone fixed a pothole and put a QR code to this. Saw it on Reddit.” Hernandez has already raised  $4,350 of the $9,311 she owes.