Illinois home renovation turns up 63-year-old 'still perfectly crispy' McDonald's french fries

A husband and wife in Crystal Lake, Illinois, were recently renovating their home when they unearthed something deliciously strange inside one of the bathroom walls: a pair of balled-up McDonald's hamburger wrappers and a remarkably well-preserved bag of McDonald's french fries.

The unusual discovery is now causing quite a stir on social media. The food's wrappers are without McDonald's famous golden arches and emblazoned with the 1950s McDonald's mascot, Speedee, a predecessor of Ronald McDonald.

The antiquated packaging can only mean one thing. The leftover fries — which homeowner Rob Jones declared "still perfectly crispy" — are extremely old. In fact, they may be 63 years old.

In a social media post about his family's discovery, Rob Jones noted that one of the original McDonald's locations is located just about a half-mile from his home. His story checks out. According to NBC News, Chamber of Commerce records show that an early McDonald’s opened in the area in 1959, the same year the Jones' house was built.

It seems a construction worker may have purchased the burgers and fries, then costing 15 cents and 10 cents, respectively, and forgot to dispose of them before closing up a wall.

Commenters on social media celebrated the finding, branding Jones an archaeologist and the new record-holder for "oldest McD's found in walls."

But Rob and his wife, Grace Jones, who have children ages 2 and 5, said they were just thankful it was only fast food — and not something more sinister.

"We were expecting the worst. We were both like, 'Oh, my gosh, we're going to be unveiling a cold case here,'" Grace told NBC News on Wednesday, laughing. "I was shielding my kids in case there was any dried blood."

"Not a cold case, just some cold fries," she said, relieved. "They were very well preserved."

Rob Jones confirmed to Newsweek that he made the discovery while adding a built-in toilet paper holder to his bathroom. To do so, he had to cut out a small portion of the wall. That's when he noticed a "piece of cloth stuck behind plaster" and pulled it out to show his wife.

"It was balled up and we could tell there was something else inside," he recalled. "When we unwrapped it and found the old McDonald's bag and fries we were very surprised and grateful that is all we found hidden."