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A nutty surprise: Man finds 1,600 walnuts under the hood of his nephew's car

First, the car made a weird noise. Then, a squirrel came running out of the wheel well. Something weird was happening.
squirrel car
Posted at 10:50 AM, Oct 12, 2022
and last updated 2022-10-12 11:50:30-04

MILWAUKEE — When you open the hood of your car, you expect to find an engine, right? There should all sorts of vehicle components like wires, headlights, and a place for window washer fluid and oil... but what there shouldn't be is more than 1,500 walnuts.

Adam Nye, a Milwaukee resident, keeps a vehicle parked outside his house pretty regularly. It's his nephew's car. He keeps it at Nye's house while he goes to school at Marquette University.

Since the car doesn't get a lot of use, Nye likes to go outside every once in a while just to start it and make sure everything is running properly. However, last week, the experience was a bit different.

Nye said when he started the car, there was a loud grinding noise that was not a typical sound for the car to make. But, it quickly went away. Nye said he then turned the car off and back on again to see if it made the noise again. It didn't!

That was that.

But, just two days later, Nye was outside and saw a red tail squirrel exit the front passenger side wheel well and run up a tree. The squirrel then proceeded to stare and "bark" at Nye. He said it felt like unusual behavior for the animal so he thought he'd better look into it.

Nye remembered the unusual noise the car made just days ago, and decided to lift the hood of the car. There, he found a nutty surprise.

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More than 1,500 walnuts were found underneath the hood of a car.

He said the entire engine bay was covered in black walnuts from a nearby tree! But get this, they weren't just scattered on top of the area, but they were stuffed in every nook and cranny of the engine, behind the headlights, and even between the radiator fan!

There were so many nuts, Nye needed backup. He said several people worked on the car for six hours. About 1,600 nuts were removed!

So, the next time your car makes a weird noise, maybe take a peak under the hood and make sure a squirrel hasn't made a home for nuts in your vehicle!

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