  We explore the possible interpretation of the large-$Q^2$ anomaly reported by
the H1 and ZEUS collaborations in terms of stop squark production off a strange
quark in the proton via an R-violating interaction. This "strange stop"
interpretation is constrained by LEP measurements of the $Z \to e^+ e^-$ decay
rate in addition to constraints from the electroweak $\rho$ parameter and CDF
and D0 searches for first-generation leptoquarks. We investigate the interplay
between these constraints, taking full account of stop mixing effects. We find
that if $m_{\tilde t} \le 200$ GeV only relatively small domains of the
chargino and neutralino parameters are consistent with these constraints, and
explore the extent to which this scenario may be probed further by searches for
contact interactions at LEP~2 and experiments with $e^-$ and polarized beams at
HERA.
