While Replacing TP Holder, Couple Makes Surprising Find

'Very well preserved' bag of McDonald's fries was hidden in the wall of their Illinois home
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2022 9:10 AM CDT
Updated May 1, 2022 12:02 PM CDT
Couple Finds Preserved McDonald's Fries From 1959
A more recent batch of french fries.   (Getty Images/Ciaran Griffin)

Opening up a small hole in their bathroom wall to replace a built-in toilet paper holder, Rob and Grace Jones of Crystal Lake, Ill., looked inside and spotted a towel hiding something inside. "We were expecting the worst. We were both like, 'Oh, my gosh, we're going to be unveiling a cold case here,'" Grace, 31, tells NBC News. "I was shielding my kids in case there was any dried blood." There wasn't any dried blood, or even ketchup—but there was a "very well preserved" bag of McDonald's french fries, thought to have been hidden inside the wall more than 60 years ago.

The fries were found alongside two hamburger wrappers, which are clearly old, decorated with Speedee, the McDonald's 1950s mascot who predated Ronald McDonald. Per NBC, the couple's home northwest of Chicago was built in 1959—the same year a McDonald's opened about a half-mile away. The carryout location sold burgers for 15 cents, fries for 10 cents, and milkshakes for 20 cents, according to town records. "It's been so fun ... learning about the history of our neighborhood," says Grace, who notes the fries are now stored in an airtight container away from her young kids. They have no plans to do a taste test.

The same can be said for a woman from Washington, DC, who found a five-year-old McDonald's hamburger in her closet earlier this year. In fact, 41-year-old Megan Condry vowed to never again eat fast food again after finding the "rock hard" burger looking "the same as the day I bought it" in 2017, per the Sun. Though she blamed "preservatives," chef J. Kenji López-Alt of the blog Serious Eats did a series of experiments that showed other burgers could be preserved in the same way as McDonald's burgers, per IFL Science. He determined preservatives were not to blame but rather a lack of moisture content, "resulting in a burger that dries out long before it can start to rot." (More McDonald's stories.)

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