Pittsburgh woman finds 200 walnuts and squirrel's nest under hood of her car

A Pittsburgh-area woman checking the engine of her car to make sure nothing was aflame after she smelled burning made an even more surprising discovery under the hood: almost 200 walnuts and a squirrel's nest.

Holly Persic called her husband, Chris Persic, on Monday as she was driving. She told him that she noticed a burning smell but wasn't sure what it was. Chris told her to pull over and pop the hood to make sure nothing was on fire before he hung up.

Minutes later, Persic sent him a text that showed the source of the problem, heaps of walnuts and twigs stashed away in the engine of her 2016 Kia Sorento.

"She sent that text and my jaw hit the floor," Chris Persic told ABC News on Wednesday.

Chris Persic made his way to the Northland Library, where Persic pulled over and began picking out as many walnuts as he could. It was pouring rain that day.

"It took about at least 45 minutes. There was a lot," Chris Persic said. "I was soaking wet … but I could see there was still a good amount of walnuts underneath the motor."

He and Persic then took the car to a nearby mechanic to remove the rest.

"They put it up on the lift and, I guess there's a protective plate underneath, so when they took that off all the walnuts fell out all over the place," he said.

The mechanics ended up dumping about half of a trashcan full of walnuts.

The car, fortunately, didn't have any extensive damage.

Chris Persic posted about the incident on Facebook a short while after it happened.

"Whether people are gonna admit it or not, I guarantee at least a couple of people have looked under their hood since seeing that post," he said with a laugh.