Beyond Imagination
He watched the strange situation unfolding before his eyes. But he would find out soon that there was another pair of eyes watching the same thing he was.
The two of them walked out of the restaurant and it seemed as if the staff was in hot water. The boss then looked at the trunk of the car motioning him to open it. But what was inside was certainly unexpected.
Local Man
Thomas Sutton worked as a communications manager in Fargo for an electricity firm. He was born and raised in North Dakota and was proud of it.
Thomas loved his routine. He knew the bars and restaurants in the area and made those places part of his home. He was a regular at many of them and many people recognized him there.
Just Another Day
Thomas decided to go to his favorite restaurant on a Tuesday afternoon. He went to this place frequently and loved the atmosphere during his lunch break.
He felt at home at the restaurant, he took his usual window-side seat and watched the atmosphere. But this wouldn't be a regular lunchbreak as he'd find out.
Mysterious Waiter
Thomas was friendly with the staff and over time learned the names of everyone, except one waiter in particular.
Thomas wasn't even sure if the waiter was worth getting to know. He seemed a little strange to say the least. Thomas would always watch him while he ate his lunch, fascinated.
Waiter Wanted
As soon as Thomas got his lunch he overheard a customer ask for the waiter. They wanted him to be their waiter. He watched the situation unfold before his eyes. But he couldn't have prepared himself.
The patrons in question were a middle-aged couple. Thomas was unaware of what was about to happen next.
A Strange Exchange
He noticed now that the waiter was feeding the woman. He even started to clean the corners of her mouth with a napkin. No one else seemed to care about what was going on.
Then the waiter grabbed something small and yellow and put it in the palm of her hand. What was it? Where were things going?
The Boss
He kept his head down and kept eating the food he'd ordered while he watched everything. But it seemed that someone else was also watching.
The boss emerged from the kitchen and called the waiter over. He could tell there was something going on between them as they exchanged words. The boss then turned and walked out in a huff.
From Bad To Worse
Thomas could see that the waiter was different after the exchange. He looked around the room before excusing himself and quickly leaving the dining room.
He was running after his boss. Both the men walked outside to where Thomas could still see them. But what the men did next would surprise Thomas.
The Truck
Thomas craned his neck to look out of the window. He couldn't hear the men talking but watched their body language. But he never imagined he'd see what he saw.
They got to a pickup truck in the parking. The boss tapped is foot waiting for the waiter to open it. It was clear now that it was his vehicle. But what was he looking for inside?
Tensions Rising
He could see the waiter nod, then the boss began to say something as he pointed at the truck. The waiter grabbed his keys and gave them to him and gestured him forward.
Thomas had no idea what was going on. By now he was finished eating, paid his bill, and got up to walk out. He didn’t know why but he just knew something crazy was about to go down.
Spying Eyes
Thomas stepped outside. He was parked beside the men who had no idea he had been watching them all along. Thomas hung back close to the restaurant door, standing just within earshot of the two men. He didn’t want to disrupt whatever was happening.
He watched in disbelief as the boss opened the trunk and uncovered what was stashed beneath.
Strange Objects
The boss opened the waiter’s trunk and uncovered a trunk full to the brim of some kind of strange substance. Thomas squinted his eyes trying to decipher what the strange items were.
He needed to get a closer look so he walked up slowly, staring at the trunk’s mysterious contents. Was he witnessing a drug bust? The situation soon became clear.
A Whole Lot Of Nuts
It was walnuts. There were so many walnuts that the trunk was just about overflowing with them.
When Thomas got closer, he heard what the two men were saying. And with a sigh, he realized that this waiter wasn’t in trouble. Instead, he was being asked about the bizarre situation that stood in front of them. Why was his truck full of nuts?
A Squirrel
Thomas was bemused at the funny and unlikely story the waiter began to tell. Apparently, a red squirrel had stacked up the waiter’s vehicle with his winter supply of nuts.
The waiter woke up to car trouble. When he opened the trunk, he was blown away by the squirrel's hard work. But given the rush he was in to go to work, he didn’t have time to clear it out. Gossip spread.
News Spreads Fast
As it turned out, the waiter had told all his coworkers about the story behind this crazy scene and his boss wanted to come out to see if it was true.
The waiter continued to tell him exactly how the squirrel was brave enough to decide his car was the best place for storage. You see, he was away on vacation last week and left his car at his house. When he returned and experienced some car trouble and found a stack of walnuts in his trunk. But what about his strange behavior with the couple?
Sharing The Walnuts
The waiter had taken out some walnuts and showed the customers as proof of his story. When the woman mentioned she wanted to try one, he popped one in her mouth. The couple and the waiter were good friends, Thomas later learned.
They were so amused at the story that they were delighted to keep one of the red squirrels' long hard work. But the story wasn’t over there.
Online Reputation
Thomas approached the trunk and had a good look at the engine. He asked the waiter how many walnuts were in there. The waiter chuckled and said he was going to empty it after his shift and let him know tomorrow.
He gave him his facebook page to keep updated with his funny story. Apparently, this isn’t the first time it’s happened to him.
Not The First Time
The waiter told Thomas that this happened every few years since he moved into his house that rests just in front of a woodland. In his backyard, are two towering walnut trees that attract attention from the wildlife that surrounds the area - especially, the squirrels!
But funnily enough, he’s the only neighbor that’s car gets targeted as a walnut storage facility.
North Carolina Squirrels
Red squirrels are very common in North Carolina, especially around the mountain ranges. Four of the two hundred species of squirrel can be found in North Carolina; the common grey squirrel, red squirrel, southeastern fox squirrel, and the flying squirrel.
The grey squirrel was even adopted as the state mammal in 1967. But they don’t come without their problems…
Troublesome
Not only do some squirrels cause a little trouble for residents like the waiter but they also can carry dangerous diseases and infections that can be transferred onto humans if you get too close. Mange, cat scratch fever, typhus, and occasionally rabies are all something to keep an eye out for. They also have a short life span of around 3 - 5 years so why do squirrels keep messing with the waiter’s car?
Mange, cat scratch fever, typhus, and occasionally rabies are all something to keep an eye out for. They also have a short life span of around 3 - 5 years so why do squirrels keep messing with the waiter’s car?
Social Media Update
As promised, the waiter uploaded a post to his social media account after he returned home from work. He wrote; “Conversion Mathematics. How many bushels can one red squirrel pick and store in 4 days? Hint, look at how many 5-gallon buckets are in the pictures.
“Then add the full inner fenders that I don't have time today to clean out. Guessing another 1½ to 2 buckets there. Curiosity got me, the buckets have an average of 26 lbs in just walnut weight. Let me know your answers and as always show your work”. His post blew up.
Going Viral
“That’s hilarious”, one person wrote while others gave their best shot at working out his funny equation. “Let's see.....1 squirrel plus 4 days equals 156 lbs of walnuts. 48 lbs in a bushel would be 3.25 bushels of walnuts and 1 dead squirrel”, another wrote.
“Give that squirrel a job application! What a hard worker!”, Thomas added. Then he discovered something even more bizarre.
Hilarious History
Thomas scrolled through the waiter’s feed to see more uploads from different years of the same situation happening over and over again. Whenever he went on vacation and left his car at his house, there was a good chance he might come home to a winter’s supply of freshly picked walnuts waiting for him in his car.
And they wouldn’t just be stored in his engine.
Expensive Ordeal
Often the squirrel would hide the nuts in crevices of his car like the left or right fenders. Often, it would turn into an expensive affair as he would need to take the car to a garage to remove the parts and retrieve the walnuts.
What he didn’t understand though is why it kept on happening, especially given that it must be different squirrels.
Better Luck Next Time
The best Thomas could come up with was that it must have been a learned behavior passed from generation to generation of the squirrels in the area.
Thomas, however, wasn’t alone in the “nuts club.” There was a Wisconsin man who ended up having something far worse happen to his vehicle...
Still Spry
Martin Fennis might have breached the 80-year-old mark, but that didn’t mean he was ready to be put out to pasture. 0
His mind was as sharp as a young man’s and his eyesight was still thankfully 20/20. Among his many hobbies, driving was one of his passions.
Driving Passion
He loved taking his ’56 Dodge Le Femme – lovingly named “Ol’ Lula” – out for a spin around town, stopping at the ice cream shop or bookstores.
But when the weather turned cold, it was time to tuck the little lady in the garage and bring out his sensible Honda Civic. While the car started just fine, he noticed something odd as he pulled out on to the street.
Immediate Problems
First, no matter how hard he stepped on the gas, he couldn’t get the car to go past 40.
Then, he heard a strange sound that could only be described as rattling – like someone had shoved a dozen maracas under his hood. Next came the nose-crinkling stench.
Needing Help
It started out gentle, nearly pleasant – so much that Martin had flashbacks to his mother packing peanut butter sandwiches in his lunch.
But quickly, the smell turned to a rancid, burned stench. The plan was to take his winter car in for a check up the next week, but as smoke started to creep out of the air vents, he quickly made a B-line for the closest garage.
Nuts ... Sort Of
By the time he pulled into the lot, he was coughing his lungs out – and the mechanics racing out to help him (probably thinking the car was on fire).
But when one of them lifted the hood and waved the smoke away, he let out a bellowing laugh. Martin rushed over. He could believe his eyes.
Winter Feast
Packed into every nook and cranny ... were pinecones.
The jagged seed pods were literally everywhere! The workers chuckled as the pushed the Honda into the shop. But when they started to clean out the car, they got an even bigger surprise!
More In There
Everyone, including Martin, figured that was the culprit of the poorly performing vehicle.
But as the clean up progressed, and they workers made their way to the air filter, it seemed the mischievous squirrels had left him another gift – the entire line was packed with peanuts! But how?
Peanut Heaven
The weren’t the kind that people would find in the supermarket – rather the ones that come in bird feed. Somehow the rascals were raiding surrounding feeders and stashing their spoils far deeper than the pinecones.
Martin sighed and slumped into a chair. It was clear he was going to have to wait a while. But how long did it take them to actually get every nutty morsel?
So Many Nuts
It took the workers more than 2 hours to clean out the car!
From pines cones to burnt peanuts riddled through the exhaust system, the final pile was impressive. But there was another matter that Martin had nearly forgotten. This was some animal’s winter food. He asked the workers to sweep up whatever wasn’t burnt and put it in a garbage bag.
Giving Them Back
When he got home, he put back the nuts that were in his car – but this time in a plastic box. He cut out a couple holes and left it in the corner of the garage.
Hopefully, they would still have their food, but leave his ‘Ol Lulu alone!