A New York state couple said they ripped up some rotten wood at their recently purchased home and made a surprising discovery -- a bootlegger's stash of whiskey from 100 years ago.
Nick Drummond and Patrick Bakker said they had heard while preparing to purchase their home in Ames that it might have belonged to a bootlegger in the 1920s.
"It was sort of the local urban legend that it was built by a bootlegger," Drummond told USA Today. "We went with it, but we also knew that this was totally made up."
The pair discovered the story was true when they ripped up some rotten wood skirting in the house's mudroom and something fell out.
The object was a package containing six bottles of whiskey. The couple wondered whether there were more hidden bottles.
"There's this hatch in the floor, this wood hatch. We knew about it, it's not like it's particularly well hidden," Drummond said. "We're like, 'So now we have to climb in the hatch.'"
The men went down into the hatch and discovered a hidden storage space beneath the mudroom floor filled with bottles.
The couple said they counted about 100 total bottles of whiskey.
Drummond said he did some research and determined the house had been built in 1915 by German immigrant Adolph Humphner, who apparently operated an illegal whiskey ring during the prohibition years.
The men said some of the bottles still have labels identifying them as a blended Gaelic whiskey from Scotland. The bottles bear dates from the 1920s.
The men said they have not tried any of the whiskey from the intact bottles, but they are considering auctioning off some of the bottles that are in good condition down the line.
Drummond and Bakker are now chronicling the house's restoration, and the discoveries they make along the way, on Instagram.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
