Posted on: Friday, March 7, 2003

Sailor's Cheeto becomes cheesy icon in Iowa town

Associated Press

A Pearl Harbor sailor who found a super-sized Cheeto in a bag of the cheesy snack food has become something of an Internet celebrity and a hero to a rural Iowa town.

Petty Officer Mike Evans plucked the Cheeto — described as 0.6 ounce and the size of a small lemon — from a bag he had bought for his 3-year-old son.

Evans, a 41-year-old Gulf War veteran, put it up for auction on eBay. Radio stations around the country called him.

"I was absolutely astounded that something like a Cheeto could become a pop icon," said Evans said. "It's international. I've even seen it online on a Russian site."

Eventually Evans pulled the Cheeto from the auction site and donated it to Algona, Iowa, a town of just 5,700 residents, after a disc jockey there staged a promotion to raise money to win the bid.

"I thought it would be really great if we could get it as a tourist attraction for Algona. I thought we could change the face of northern Iowa," said Bryce Wilson of KLGA-FM, acknowledging that his request was tongue in cheek.

Wilson said he plans to get in touch with the Guinness Book of World Records to see if its bulk is a record.