Couple renovates home — and finds decades-old McDonald’s fries. ‘Do not smell at all’

If a husband and wife did not renovate their home’s bathroom, they say a bag of McDonald’s fries would still be stuffed inside one of the walls.

Rob Jones and his wife were renovating their half-bathroom on April 16 when they removed a toilet paper holder from the wall. That revealed “an old white rag” hidden inside their house in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

“We pulled the rag out and could feel something wrapped inside it,” he said in a message to McClatchy News after posting his rare find to Reddit as user slamminsammy2109.

The couple unraveled the rag, where Jones says they found two hamburger wrappers alongside old fries in a fry wrapper.

“We were happy to find just the McDonald’s bag and not something worse,” he added.

After doing some research, Jones discovered that the wrappers with that specific imaging were produced decades ago.

“From 1955 to 1961, the bags featured a mascot holding signs that read ‘custom built hamburgers’ and ‘I’m speedier,’” Business Insider reported in 2016. “The company got rid of the mascot in 1961 and opted for a much simpler design on its bags. The packaging featured an early version of what we know today as the Golden Arches.”

McDonald’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on April 26.

Jones’ home was built in 1959, making it possible for the original builders to have placed an order of fries in the walls before the bags were retired.

While the fries are decades old, Jones says there was no sign of the fast food stinking up their bathroom.

“Contrary to popular belief, the fries do not smell at all,” he said. “Had we not been renovating they probably would’ve sat there another 60 years!”

This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Couple renovates home — and finds decades-old McDonald’s fries. ‘Do not smell at all’."