Why would someone dump hundreds of pounds of pasta (some say cooked, others say uncooked and softened by rain) by a stream in Old Bridge, New Jersey, a suburb not far from Trenton. That was one question raised when town resident Nina Jochnowitz posted several photos of the abandoned pasta — spaghetti, macaroni and other shapes — on her Facebook page in late April.

“A good Estimate is more than 500 pounds of pasta dumped adjacent to the streams intersecting with Hilliard and Mimi,” Jochnowitz wrote.

Jochnowitz, who advocated for bulk garbage pickup in the area during a recent run for council and had been contacted about the piles of pasta by another Old Bridge resident, managed to get the city to clean up the 25-foot long pile of pasta. (Locals have estimated it to have been about 15 wheelbarrows full.) And in addition to spurring action, her post also unleashed a stream of speculation … and pasta puns.

“We should send the perpetrators to the state penne tentiary,” wrote one commenter on a NJ subreddit, where the story was shared.

But who did do it … and why? Was it a restaurant worker gone rogue? The work of someone who’d suddenly gone on a low-carb diet? A thought-provoking modern art project? And what happened to the sauce?

All kidding aside, the culprit has now been found. A neighbor’s doorbell camera recorded a military veteran who was cleaning out his mother’s house after her death carting away heaps of pasta, according to NJ.com.

“There was so much of it, he was probably a bit overwhelmed,” Jochnowitz tells the website. She has been in contact with the man’s family and is declining to release his name to the press.

Jochnowitz added that, at this point, she’s ready for the pasta saga she helped cook up to be “over.”

So I guess we can all now agree: What’s pasta is past.

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