New York couple finds Prohibition-era booze hidden in house's walls

NEW YORK - A couple restoring a house in Montgomery County, New York, say they were surprised to find bottles of prohibition-era booze hidden behind their walls.

Nick Drummond and his partner, Patrick Bakker, said they purchased the house in Ames as a fixer-upper for around $183,000 in 2019.

Writing on Instagram, Drummond said the house once belonged to a man named Adolph Humpfner, who died in 1932, leaving behind the booze and many other assets. Drummond said they were told that Humpfner was a “childless German baron” who turned to bootlegging in the 1920s, when alcohol was banned from manufacture, transportation, and sale.

A video clip shows panels of wood being pulled off the outside of the house, revealing the bottles behind it.

The booze was concealed using straw wrapped around the bottles, the couple said. In total, 66 bottles of alcohol were discovered, with 13 full, Drummond said.

“To everyone asking if we have tried it, we haven’t! But we will!” Drummond wrote.