AMES, N.Y. — A couple renovating a century-old house in upstate New York came across a find linked to one of the previous owners who was believed to be a Prohibition-era bootlegger -- bottles of whiskey hidden beneath floorboards and inside walls.
Nick Drummond and Patrick Bakker were doing renovations on the house, originally built in 1915, that was once owned by Count Adolph Humpfner, a man who was involved in various scandals and died suddenly in 1932. Rumors swirled in town through the years that he was also involved in bootlegging.
The couple had been living in the house for about a year before starting renovations a couple months ago. Drummond, an architect and preservationist, removed skirting from around the house when he first made the find.
“I’m like what is that? I’m very confused. I’m looking and there’s hay everywhere, there’s paper, and glass ... I see another package and it’s this whiskey bottle,” Drummond told CNN. “Initially we found seven bundles of six in the wall and then at that point we found four more bundles and actually funny enough as of less than a week ago we just found more.”
So far, they have discovered more than 66 bottles of Old Smuggler Whiskey from the 1920s. The whiskey is still made today. The couple intend to sell the whiskey-filled bottles, which are valued at about $1,000 each. Well, except for the bottle they plan to keep.
“To everyone asking if we have tried it, we haven’t,” Drummond said on social media. “But we will! I don’t know why we haven’t yet.”
Cox Media Group
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