Man Finds A Squirrel Has Stashed 158kg Of Nuts In His Engine

A man has spent the best part of a decade in a battle of wills with a red squirrel.

For eight years, Bill Fischer, from Fargo, North Dakota, has been trying desperately to stop the furry little blighter from filling his car engine up with walnuts. But to no avail.

But the 56-year-old says he is constantly outwitted by his nemesis, who manages to hide hundreds of the nuts away in his truck.

Every autumn the rodent stores tonnes of the things in the engine compartment, wheel arches and even behind the bumper.

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And this leaves Bill with he unenviable task of having to clear them all out, spending hours removing each nut by hand and chucking them into buckets.

Speaking about the bizarre war, the insurance agent said: "I have been dealing with the red squirrel since 2013, this has now become a sort of ritual with it filling my truck with nuts and me trying to remove them."

Bill said he doesn't ever see the squirrel until the walnuts on the tree that grows near his home start to ripen.

And over the years, he says he's tried a number of tactics to prevent the squirrel from getting into his truck, even spraying the vehicle with Tabasco and Cayenne pepper.

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But alas, the little guy is never deterred.

And this year, he's been incredibly busy, hiding a colossal 158kg (348lbs) of walnuts in his engine - a record.

"The most I had ever pulled so far was four buckets, so with seven buckets this year the squirrel was on a mission," said Bill, who admitted that he has felt guilty in the past for having undone the squirrel's efforts.

"I have to have a sense of humour about this after so many years.

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"I put in as much hard work as the squirrel when I have to take my truck apart just to remove bucket after bucket of walnut."

But Bill's nut stasher isn't the only squirrel that's been keeping themselves busy of late.

Earlier this year, a photographer caught three of the furry creatures going at it with each other while out snapping some mongooses.

At the time, Max Waugh, from Seattle, USA, said: "It was completely unexpected, and obviously appeals to one's more juvenile sense of humour.

"More seriously, I am always excited to capture rare and unexpected animal behaviour."

Topics: Food, Funny, US News

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom