Nearly 500 Pounds Of Pasta Mysteriously Dumped In New Jersey Woods

2023-05-10

Some people in New Jersey found a bizarre way to “pasta time” last month: by dumping nearly 500 pounds of cooked pasta in the woods near Old Bridge, New Jersey.

The massive spaghetti dump appeared in a river basin around April 28 and became big news after former City Council candidate Nina Jochnowitz posted photos of the spaghetti spill on the “Old Bridge New Jersey” Facebook page.

“It was like the song, on top of spaghettiiiii, all covered with cheese,” Nina Jochnowitz recalled to The Philadelphia Inquirer about the incident she called “Mission Impastable.”

There are conflicting reports over whether the pasta was cooked.

Jochnowitz insists it was, saying “it looked like someone filled up a wheelbarrow of pasta and dumped it.”

Others, including Himanshu Shah, the business administrator of Old Bridge Township, suggested the pasta was just wet from rain.

Shah confirmed to Today.com that 15 wheelbarrow loads of pasta were illegally dumped in the woods near a creek but said the spaghetti was uncooked.

“It looks like it was only there for a short time but moisture did start to soften some of the pasta,” Shah told Today.

Officers took a report, and Shah said two public works employees cleaned up the pasta in less than an hour.

Police are investigating the incident, but there was no word on whether the pasta dump was the work of one person or a group.

The pasta pics brought some strong reactions.

Philadelphia resident Ali Allocco told the Inquirer, ”This is the most New Jersey thing ever,” while the photos inspired some pretty saucy pasta puns on a New Jersey-themed Reddit page:

• “We should send the perpetrators to the state penne tentiary.”
• “It was pasta expiration date”
• “Oh, please, this isn’t something to make light of. The food waste alone is pastatively gross. Cleaning this up will cost the town a pretty penni. I don’t know what the criminals were on, they had to be totally sauced to do something like this. But I hope we spaghet justice.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article referred to Nina Jochnowitz as a City Council candidate. She is a former candidate.

• 2023-05-10
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