'It Looks Like a Giant Squashed Hershey's Kiss': 800-Lb Mystery Object Baffles River Clean-Up Crew

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a...giant Hershey's kiss? Delaware, Ohio river cleanup crews were absolutely baffled when they stumbled upon an 800-pound mysterious object. During the state's annual Olentangy River Clean-up on August, the large piece of metal that looked like a squashed Hershey's Kiss was recovered.

Typically, the clean-up crew will spot discarded items such as bikes, cans, trash, and the like. However, there was one large item that City of Delaware Public Utilities could not identify, NBC4i reported.

"They joked that it was a UFO," Caroline Cicerchi, the city's watershed and sustainability coordinator, said, as per This Week News.

The City of Delaware Public Utilities took to Facebook to share images of the incredible discovery. "Found during the August 22 clean-up, this item required a little bit more power to remove from the Olentangy. Weighing 880 pounds, this metal was recycled at Sims and the money generated will be donated to the Olentangy Watershed Alliance."

They joked that they figured it wasn't a UFO, and asked folks what they think it is. Some joked that it was a plug for the river, and begged the Public Utilities department to put it back in so the water wouldn't drain. Others guessed that it was a spacecraft, based on its UFO-like shape.

One Twitter user, however, cracked the case. Adam Worthington shared a picture of the object being used as a buoy at a local campground/waterpark. He circled the object in the picture, and cheekily asked if he would get a prize for figuring it out.

Turns out, Worthington was right! On September 1, the department followed up, saying that the object was from Whitesands, a local campground. The top-shaped buoy was used as a floatation device, where the flat side was turned upwards for swimmers to sit on. Since the campground was upriver, there's a chance that flooding may have caused it to float to the cleanup location.

"The flood washed out my beaches and everything, and I had the top sitting on the grass area where the campers go," Whitesands campground owner Gene Monte revealed, This Week News reported. "One of the campers said the water was so swift it picked up the top and floated it right down the river."

The Whitesands buoy was among several strange items picked up during the annual cleanup. "We found an old typewriter, a toy gun, part of a vacuum and two old bikes," Cicerchi said. "There was significantly less trash in the river after our huge haul last year, which was very encouraging. No tires were found compared to almost a dozen in 2019."

Ultimately, the buoy was recycled, and the money was donated to the Olentangy Watershed Alliance. The mystery of the giant squashed Hershey's Kiss was solved!