David Whipple said he bought the burger at a McDonald's in Logan, Utah, on July 7, 1999, KUTV reported. The lead headline in The Salt Lake Tribune that day was "Underage Smoking Boosts Tax Revenue." The slogan for the Golden Arches that year was "Did somebody say McDonald's?"
Whipple said he bought the burger -- for 79 cents -- to use in presentations he was giving about enzymes, demonstrating how things deteriorate, KUTV reported.
“I carried it around for about a month at a couple of demonstrations,” Whipple told the television station. “And then it got stuck in a coat pocket. The coat got thrown in the back of my van, and I guess it just got hung up in my closet in Logan.”
The family eventually moved to St. George, and the coat languished in the closet for several more years, Whipple told KUTV.
“I think my wife was giving the coat away or something,” Whipple said.
That’s when she found the hamburger.
In February 2013, the television station interviewed Whipple, and the video went viral on YouTube.
Six years later, Whipple took the hamburger out of its special tin, KUTV reported.
“It hasn’t changed,” Whipple told the television station. “The pickle is the only thing that has disintegrated.”
So what does one do with a 20-year-old burger that looks dried out but has no mold? Whipple believes he deserves a break today.
"I keep thinking somebody's going to offer me a lot of money for this and I can retire," Whipple told KUTV.
That's when David bought his famous burger -- a story we first brought to you in 2013 in a now-viral YouTube video.
David purchased the burger to use in presentations he was giving about enzymes and how things deteriorate.
David said:
It got stuck in a coat pocket. The coat got thrown in the back of my van, and I guess it just got hung up on our closet in Logan. Subsequently we moved from Logan to St. George, Utah, and it stayed there for a couple years and I think my wife was giving the coat away or something and found it.
After talking with 2News about the burger, David put it back in its tin -- until we decided to find out if the burger was still around as it turned 20.
Sure enough -- the burger looked the same and didn’t smell like much other than cardboard.
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