The case of the discarded dough is solved!

Social media’s latest tasty fix has a delicious ending!

Last week, the world’s collective attention was focused on a small New Jersey town after several pounds of discarded pasta were found on Old Bridge.

Resident Nina Jochnowitz saw many incidents involving the city during her campaign for City Council a few years ago, but the “noodle gate” had to be one of the weirdest local news items on her agenda without a doubt!

Jochnowitz took photos of the discarded dough, which turned out to contain several goodies. According to the New York Timesspaghetti, alphabet shapes and macaroni have been identified at an estimated £300-500. Jochnowitz also reported that the mounds of dough were 25 feet high.

Social media was dominated by pasta-themed comments!

Dear all of America!

Please don’t send us the pasta dump story. While it’s true that we’re the ultimate news outlet for piles of stuff in the woods, we try to be gluten-free and…

JK. We love that you want us to review it. We have the best meatballs on it.

— Endless_Thread (@Endless_Thread) May 5, 2023

Jochnowitz’s simple gesture of posting photos of the mound of dough on Facebook was just the beginning of the internet’s latest fixation!

The photos are said to have first captured Old Bridge’s local internet scene; the publication also revealed that the residents of the suburbs began to come up with different theories about how the dough ended up in the stream!

The restaurateurs soon joined the chat to clear their business of speculation after the photos started circulating on Reddit.

Anthony Esposito’s restaurant had nothing to do with it, he told the New York Times; Esposito owns Via Sposito, an Italian restaurant on Old Bridge.

Esposito spoke to the store and expressed doubts about the culprit. Although Via Sposito reportedly offers a variety of pastas on its menu, including some in the stream, he shared, “Nothing from here. I think whoever did this fed the forest.

The authorities got involved in the case

Although the details of “Pasta-gate” seem like they couldn’t exist outside of a “Monty Python” sketch, the case has reached local authorities to investigate. Jochnowitz contacted police before sharing his photos on social media.

The Old Bridge Police Department visited the scene and seized the details for reporting purposes. At that time, the Public Works Department also got involved.

The mounds and mounds of dough were then tended to and reportedly cleared within an hour, according to city business administrator Himanshu Shah. It was also “properly disposed of,” he said.

Shah also noted that following the massive exposure from social media, the public works department inspected the site. According to their findings, “15 wheelbarrows of pasta were illegally dumped in a residential area along a stream.” (according to the New York Times)

The source of the “dough gate” has been found!

The source of the massive pasta dump has been identified!

Before the news broke, Jochowitz noted that he knew the source was a private residence in the New York Times. He also stated that he knew that the head was not a business.

According to the residents of the Old Bridge area, the mystery has been solved! Based on New York NBC affiliate, the residents narrowed down the source to an apartment for sale; the son of a military veteran was cleaning his deceased mother’s food supply.

Resident Keith Rost told reporters, “I mean, I feel like he was just trying to clean his parents’ house and they were probably in storage because of COVID,” he stated. “My grandparents always had a cupboard with canned goods and pasta, just to be safe.” Rost also noted that hoarding may have come from generational thinking.

The mayor of Old Bridge also noted that the case was officially closed.