Serious stash: squirrel fills pickup truck with thousands of walnuts

That a squirrel uses his car as a hiding place for walnuts is nothing new for Bill Fischer from the US state of North Dakota. Still, he was shocked when he took no less than seven buckets of nuts from his car this year.

Fischer shares photos of his pickup truck that is almost completely filled with black walnuts growing on a tree next to his driveway in a Facebook post. The squirrel doesn’t seem to have left a hole empty. Neighbors can come and pick up walnuts from Fischer for free for the next week, he adds.

“Hurry as these may have a limited availability as l hear the hard-working furry tree dweller might be retiring soon do to health reasons! Also the squirrel is dealing with a caustic work environment due to a relentless micromanaging supervisor of the canine type,” he exclaimed on Facebook.

Fischer tells The Washington Post, among others, that the squirrel has made it a regular ritual to use his car as a hiding place when the walnut tree bears fruit. That happens once every two years.

“By the way, I have other vehicles very close to that tree, but it’s always the same truck,” the man from Fargo explained to the American newspaper.

“Once I purposely parked it in the street, as far from the tree as possible, but the creature still manages to find my Avalanche and hide the nuts in it.” If he had to guess, he thinks the squirrel probably came in through the back of the car and ran down the frame rails to the engine block.

A big job

Every other year, it has become a regular job for the American to completely empty the car in the fall. In the meantime, he waits until all the nuts have fallen from the tree before starting it. “He sits there looking at me from the tree,” Fischer laughs. “He must be thinking, ‘Hey, those are mine, mate,’ as I take his winter supply away.”

This year, the squirrel set a record. Fischer normally has to clean up about four or five buckets, there were now no fewer than seven. The man even had to take the bumper off, because the squirrel had hidden his nuts in there too.

Still, he can laugh about it. “It takes a lot of time to completely disassemble the truck, but I can’t help but laugh about it.”

Luckily for the squirrel, there are plenty of nuts around. Now start collecting all over again and hide the nuts in other storage places.