Squirrels Broke A Car By Shoving Acorns Into The Gear Linkage

When a holidaymaker returned to his car after five weeks abroad, the last thing he expected to find was a broken car filled with acorns...
Squirrels Broke A Car By Shoving Acorns Into The Gear Linkage

As discoveries go when returning to your car after more than a month abroad, this is nuts.

After spending five weeks overseas on the Asian holiday of a lifetime, Andrew Wilkins got back to his car to find that it wouldn’t change gear easily. The lever was stiff and he was having to force it into gear, but it had only sat outside his girlfriend’s dad’s house all that time, so you can imagine the confusion.

Squirrels Broke A Car By Shoving Acorns Into The Gear Linkage

He took the Volkswagen Golf to a local garage, at which point he opened the glove box to tidy it, only to find a stash of hundreds of acorns. They weren’t just there, either. The pesky rodents had ripped apart the soundproofing between the cabin and engine bay, and filled the resulting cavities with acorns, too.

Acorns were behind the dashboard trim, under the bonnet and inside the gear linkage assembly, which explains the stiff shifts.

Squirrels Broke A Car By Shoving Acorns Into The Gear Linkage

The winter stash had literally been squirrelled away by at least one poor animal that now has no food for the rest of the cold season. Speaking to the Independent, Wilkins said:

“I opened the glove compartment and it was brim full of acorns.

“I hadn’t opened it since I had been back but I went to put a pair of sunglasses in there and when I opened it, eight acorns fell out. You can imagine my surprise.

“I told one of the mechanics to take a look and he said: ‘What the ——?’

“Within 30 seconds, all ten of the garage’s mechanics were gathered around the car having a laugh.”

Andrew Wilkins' vehicle was turned into a winter supply store by the squirrel who hid the acorns in the gearbox and glove compartment.

Posted by ITV London on Wednesday, January 3, 2018

There was apparently also a dead rat inside the soundproofing area. Always a nice bonus, that. The garage billed the stunned driver £168 for removal of the acorns and the rat.

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Comments

Disklok

I can fix that.

Actually no, no I can’t.

01/03/2018 - 11:16 |
91 | 2

Lol

01/03/2018 - 11:20 |
2 | 1

Yes you can. If you believe in yourself… and if you’re completely nuts about it. 😛 😉

01/03/2018 - 11:22 |
23 | 1

Car Owner: Help, I have a rodent in my car!
Mechanic: No problem, we can fix dents and have a paint station!
Car Owner: No, a ROdent!
Mechanic: Actually no, no I can’t.

01/03/2018 - 11:58 |
8 | 0

AS JonTron said with Flex Tape, to advertise you should just say the couple of things it can’t do, like preventing squirrels from killing your gear linkage.

01/03/2018 - 18:30 |
2 | 0
₩!Ź@ŔĐ Transit supervan

The squirrels be like:

01/03/2018 - 11:26 |
34 | 1
Anonymous

[DELETED]

01/03/2018 - 11:55 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

This actually happened to me about a month ago. I was driving home and suddenly I couldnt grab any gear except 2nd. I ended up getting towed to the dealer and they said their was a walnut blocking me from shifting into the other gears. Squirrels suck!

01/03/2018 - 11:58 |
9 | 3
DATSWEDISHHORSEPOWER

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

What vehicles though

01/03/2018 - 13:35 |
1 | 0
H5SKB4RU (Returned to CT)

You have to be NUTS to put your food in a moving storage that will randomly move

01/03/2018 - 12:01 |
5 | 0
Sudip Suresh

this is absoulutly nuts

01/03/2018 - 13:14 |
3 | 0
Anonymous

Only one culprit

01/03/2018 - 13:50 |
31 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Damn you beat me to it

01/06/2018 - 12:15 |
1 | 0
Darth Imperius/Anthony🇭🇷

Ahh, classic VW offering 5 speed manuals on new cars

01/03/2018 - 14:48 |
3 | 0
Anonymous

HAHAHAHA!

01/03/2018 - 15:43 |
0 | 0
Dude

Now how is little Jack squirrel suppose to feed his family? His life savings had been put into that car, and now it’s all gone.

01/03/2018 - 16:06 |
4 | 0