Interesting – An Iowa City is Home to the World’s Largest Cheeto [PHOTO]

Algona, Iowa... population 5,447 and one really freakin' big Cheeto. A Cheeto so large, so massive it officially, since 2003, holds the record for *echo* world's largest Cheeto. Ahem, end the echo effect on your voice. So how did Algona come into possession of the friggin' massive glob of fake cheese and preservatives? Glad you asked.

One small step for man, one giant Cheeto for Algona

The year was 2003, the iPhone was 4-years off, and the last Star Wars prequel still hadn't yet come out (spoiler, Anikan becomes Darth Vader and it's pretty cool). The city of Algona needed... something. As us DJs would say, they needed a hit. OH, speaking of DJs, a radio DJ helped Algona find that hit.

Before the DJ gets involved, the story actually starts with a guy named Mike Evans. According to a CNN article, Mike is a retired Gulf War veteran stationed in Pearl Harbor who says he purchased a bag of Cheetos for his 3-year-old son. He discovered the monstrous Cheeto and, like most people in 2003 would do, decided to put it on eBay. The bidding went berzerk and got up into the millions. Sadly, these bids weren't legit and Mike was stuck with a massive Cheeto his son couldn't even fit in his mouth. That's where our DJ comes in...

Algona: Give us the Cheeto, we got NOTHING ELSE

A radio DJ named Bryce Wilson campaigned for his listeners to bid on the Cheeto saying that his city needed something, anything, to draw in tourists. They raised a whole $180 for the effort. As mentioned, the bidding went nuts because of fake bids. But, when Mr. Evans found out about Algona's desire to have the Cheeto, and the reason why he gave it to the city free of charge.

As far as any sort of official statement from Frito-Lay, Cheetos parent company as to whether or not they recognize the "record" size, there is none. However, according to the CNN article, a marketing manager did express shock that this Cheeto passed quality control. In other words, it's probably the biggest known Cheeto in the world.

Check it out as it sits upon a lovely velvet purple cushion, protected like it's the Pope.