These men found a ‘magic fridge’ full of beer while cleaning up after Nebraska’s historic floods

Facebook / Tanner Podraza

Sometimes, in the midst of hardship, something small and wonderful and amazing happens. Is it just a lucky break? Or is it a miracle?

Two men experienced one of those moments while cleaning up after devastating floods in Nebraska when they discovered a mysterious fridge, stranded in a muddy field and fully stocked with beer.

Two different kinds of beer, even — Bud Light and Busch Light.

On March 17, Kyle Simpson and his pal, Gayland Stouffer, had finished a day of cleaning up Simpson’s flood-damaged property in eastern Nebraska. They were wading through the flooded landscape to get back to their car when St. Patrick smiled upon them.

Stouffer spotted the beached refrigerator and went to check it out.

“He says, ‘Hey, this is a refrigerator,'” Simpson told the Journal-Star. “And he opens it up and says, ‘It’s full of beer.'”

“I said, ‘yeah, right,'” said Simpson. “And he reaches in and says, ‘It’s ice cold.'”

The fridge was free of floodwaters and the beers were intact, so Simpson and Stouffer helped themselves to a couple of much-deserved cold ones. They shared their pics with a friend, who posted them to Facebook, and a legend was born.

This part of the story is amazing, but how the mini-fridge got to the field is also pretty incredible. Apparently, the fridge came from its owners’ cabin nearly four miles away from where it was found. The cabin itself had been destroyed by the flood.

The really crazy part? The fridge had already survived a fire.

When the owners’ parents’ house caught fire in 2007, the fridge made it through. The family moved it to their summer cabin for essential beer storage. And that’s how it ended up in a flooded field in 2019, its contents still cold and dry.

(I’m really happy for the two guys who found the magical beer, but for me, the story is all about the brave little refrigerator.)

With Midwest flooding likely to continue in the coming weeks, here’s hoping for a lot more rays of sunshine like this one.

Humor & Funny, News, Science & Nature
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About the Author
Kathleen St. John
Kathleen St. John is a freelance journalist. She lives in Denver with her husband, two kids and a fiercely protective Chihuahua.

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