A North Dakota man had to take his Chevy Avalanche pickup apart in order to reach the hundreds of walnuts that a busy squirrel had filled it with after he left the vehicle parked under a walnut tree.
After coming home from a four-day work trip earlier this month, Bill Fischer, an insurance salesman from Fargo, North Dakota, found his Chevy Avalanche pickup full to the brim with walnuts. Apparently, a red squirrel that hangs out in Bill’s neighborhood finds the walnuts of a beautiful black walnut tree irresistible, and every autumn it goes about picking up and storing them for the winter. The problem is that, for some reason, it always seems to prefer Bill’s truck as storage, and this year was no different. In fact, it was worse than usual, with about 42 gallons-worth of walnuts crammed all throughout the car.
Photo: Bill Fischer/Facebook
“I had to pull the fenders off and clean out all the walnuts out, and thought I had them all and took it down the road, turned the corner and found one rolling down the windshield where the wipers go,” Fischer told the Grand Forks Herald newspaper. “It was planning on camping there for the winter.”
Ever since 2013, a squirrel has been using Bill Fischer’s truck as a walnut storage, filling it up with walnuts the size of lemons. The 56-year-old claims that there’s definitely something about his car that the squirrel likes, as there are plenty of other cars parked near the walnut tree and he has even tried parking it further away from it. The furry critter always tracks it down and stores walnuts in it.
Photo: Bill Fischer/Facebook
Only this year, it set a record in terms of quantity. After coming home from his work trip, the insurance salesman found it full to the brim with walnuts. The engine compartment, the fenders, they were all stuffed with walnuts, and Fischer claims he filled 6 seven-gallon buckets with the squirrel’s stash, more than ever before, and he still has some he can’t reach.
“I have some rolling around the frame, rails wells as well, that I can’t get at,” the Fargo man said.
Photo: Bill Fischer/Facebook
Over the years, Bill Fischer has learned to wait until there are no more walnuts under the tree to start the cleanup of his Chevy Avalanche, otherwise, the squirrel will only stash moe nuts in it after he’s done. The engine compartment is its favorite place, but she’ll put walnuts anywhere they’ll fit.
“The squirrel will sit in the tree and watch me clean up the walnuts almost like: ‘That’s mine, buddy,’ as he’s watching me clean up his winter storage,” Fischer said.
Photo: Bill Fischer/Facebook
Bill posted photos of this year’s record stash on his Facebook page, where they instantly went viral. It is a massive stash for one squirrel, to be honest.