To catch this culprit, neighbors used their noodles!
A man was captured on camera unloading heaps of his late mother’s spaghetti — possibly solving the mystery of how hundreds of pounds of pasta ended up dumped near a creek Old Town, New Jersey, according to residents.
A doorbell camera caught footage of the son cleaning uncooked noodles out of his mom’s house in Old Town after she died, Nina Jochnowitz, who first posted photos of the giant pasta piles, told nj.com.
The unidentified man, who neighbors say is a military veteran, likely discovered the massive load of carbs and chucked it in the wooded area because of its overwhelming quantity, said Jochnowitz, a former town council candidate.
“There was so much of it, he was probably a bit overwhelmed,” she said.
The “lotsa pasta” mystery bubbled up earlier this week when heaps of ziti, macaroni and spaghetti— weighing an estimated 500 pounds — appeared near Veterans Park in the city, baffling residents.
Neighbors viewed images of pasta piles on Facebook and quickly launched saucy theories about where it had come from while dishing out their best pasta puns.
On Friday, Jochnowitz declined to name the possible pasta tosser but said she’s been in touch with his family.
“I don’t want him to relive the trauma,” she said, referring to his military service and the death of his mom.
“I certainly don’t think that it’s fair that the media gets this story out of somebody else’s woes.”
The noodles were likely dumped when they were dry and softened in the rain, according to the town’s Department of Public Works, which cleaned up the culinary mess.
Town officials declined to comment on the possible identity of the noodle dumper, and Old Bridge police did not immediately respond to nj.com’s request for comment.