Homeowners discover a bag of 60-year-old Mcdonald's fries hidden in their bathroom wall

The french fries were "still perfectly crispy."

McDonald's museum, Des Plaines, IL(photo by Bruce Marlin, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons)

(CHICAGO) People have been known to make strange discoveries when doing home renovations, as this Crystal Lake couple recently found out. Rob and Grace Jones made an unusual find while upgrading the bathroom of their 1950's era home in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

Hidden in the walls of the bathroom Rob discovered a vintage McDonald's bag with two empty hamburger wrappers and french fries that have stood the test of time.

Rob posted his findings to the Reddit group, r/mildlyinteresting, as user slamminsammy2109. The post went viral.

"Still perfectly crispy."

Rob explained to commenters on his post that he had uncovered the ancient fast food during home renovations.

The bag was wrapped up in an old rag and embedded in the wall in the original plaster behind an old toilet paper holder. Amazingly enough, the fries were "still perfectly crispy."

The bag was most likely from one of the original McDonald's restaurants.

Rob told Reddit users his home was built in 1959 near one of the original McDonald's locations.

According to a Facebook post from the McHenry County Historical Society, "McDonald’s opened its first Crystal Lake restaurant on May 19, 1955, with Jack Bextel as the owner and operator at 130 South Virginia St."

Although today it is hard to imagine McDonald's without its iconic golden arches, the original restaurants did not have them. The Facebook post continued, "the golden arches were a later addition and are shown in a 1961 Crystal Lake Herald advertisement."

Rob's post went viral on social media.

Rob's Reddit post was shared widely on Twitter and was picked up by numerous media outlets since then.

Grace told the Crystal Lake Patch the couple was surprised at the interest shown around their strange find. "We have been absolutely blown away by the response of our find," Jones said. "We just thought it was such a crazy find that we had to share it. We had no idea it would spread so quickly."

But why didn't the fries rot?

According to an article from 2015 from The Science Explorer, when McDonald's french fries are prepared, they are soaked in oil. The oil, which in 1959 would have been beef tallow, locks out moisture.

Without moisture, the fries could not mold or decompose. Instead, they dehydrated. And in this case were preserved for over 60 years.

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