NYC trivia treasure: Eccentric uncle leaves behind over 2K fact-filled, Snapple caps
New Yorkers are thirsting for these Snapple bottle caps.
A Lenox Hill woman who inherited 2,200 “Real Facts” Snapple lids from an eccentric uncle found they carried plenty of juice with eager fans when she tried to unload them on the nextdoor app.
“All sorts of people came out of the woodwork. One person suggested that I melt them down. . . did that person think I had like a smelter in my apartment?” laughed Susan Grimbilas.
The drink maker made more than 1,600 lids with random facts like No. 733: “All scorpions glow.”
Or No. 833: “Children have more taste buds than adults.”
One eBay seller was trying to pawn the cap with the No. 1 Real Fact — “A goldfish’s attention span is three seconds” — for $7,000.
While the Grimbilas collection has duplicates and doesn’t include Real Fact No. 1, it does feature No. 2, “Animals that lay eggs don’t have belly buttons,” and No. 3, “Beavers can hold their breath for 45 seconds.”
Grimbilas and her husband George ended up with the unusual collection after overseeing the estate of George’s bachelor uncle, Strati Nicolas, of Red Bank, NJ.
The 87-year-old veteran and retired teacher died in 2020 with a house “jammed full with stuff that made him happy,” including Snapple trivia.
When the couple cleaned out the home they found various antiques, toy soldiers, Staffordshire ceramic dogs — and a giant urn-shaped planter filled with the Snapple bottle tops.
“He had apparently saved every bottle cap from what must have been years of drinking Snapple because we counted them,” Grimbilas noted. “He loved his Snapple!”
The lids sat in the corner of her dining room “for over a year” before Grimbilas — honoring Uncle Strati’s penchant for charitable giving — opted to pay it forward and give them away.
In the end, a part-time Upper West Side resident claimed the Snapple cache.
The 76-year-old woman plans to decorate the lids with fabric to make holiday trivets.
“I know my uncle would probably be happy to know that there are people who were interested in something that he had,” Grimbilas said.
