I took my car in recently for an oil change and new fan belt. My mechanic called me when it was time for pickup and asked "Hey do you grow tomatoes?" Sure I said. Did you want some? I proceeded to list the varieties and he cut me short. "No no the reason I ask is, there's a bunch of tomatoes in your engine." Huh??
Sure enough when I get there the hood is up so I can see. There must've been more than a dozen Sungolds, some half eaten mostly whole. Apparently a rodent had been storing some to snack on later . I grow a Sungold every year in my front yard and my car is parked in the driveway as we can't use the garage in the back. It's from the 50s and way too small so in my area they're all used for storage or whatnot. With covid the car isn't being used much so the engine was a great pantry. As soon as I got home I pulled the plant and my hubby cleaned out the tomatoes before I thought to take a pic. Guess next year I'll plant a pepper there

Rodents will travel 50 ft or more to gather items to store under my hood. I keep six unbated mouse traps under the hood and generally catch about one per week. I had one chomp on wires under the car on top of the drive shaft that cost me $1500 to have repaired. They had to drop the transmission to get access.

That's a real hoot! And I bet that story is making the rounds of the staff at the shop too!

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] Ha ha yeah I'm sure that gave them a laugh but they've probably seen all kinds of things in their line of work. Hubby was so grossed out after cleaning that he asked we not eat any cherry tomatoes for a while

How about huge tomatoes? They might have trouble transporting them.

Pack rats, aka, wood rats might be the worst for this behavior. They are really common in the western states. Seems like any vehicle parked outside for long is at risk for a nest and chewed up wiring. They get in buildings too. One got a nest going under a refrigerator, all kind of items ended up in the nest. Keys, an orange, candy wrappers.

Yep rodents are known to take up residence in cars. I took my car in and had a bunch of dog food in the engine and air filter compartment. I then bought a garbage can to store the food in. Those mechanics see all kinds of things.

I once found some chewed on horse chestnuts under the hood of a car that had sat for a month or so in the driveway. Of course those nuts are not edible but rats need to chew. I make sure to pick them all up now.