Horror After Homeowners Discover Pizza Babysitter Left in Oven a Month Ago

A Georgia homeowner is taking a break from pizza after making a grim discovery sure to put off even the most ardent of pie fans.

There are some people who will tell you pizza tastes better the next day—and there may actually be some science to that theory.

Dr. Emma Davies, a science writer with a PhD in food chemistry, told BBC Science Focus: "A night in the fridge gives the delicious pizza flavors time to merge and mellow in a satisfying way. The pizza keeps its structure when cold, and the tomato layer prevents fat in the cheese topping from seeping into the dough base."

But while leaving pizza overnight might improve the taste, leaving a pie untouched for a whole month will, perhaps unsurprisingly, result in something altogether less appetizing.

That's what one Georgia homeowner posting anonymously to Reddit under the handle u/DarwinismObvious discovered to his horror. "We had to do some work on a rental property my mom owns," he told Newsweek. "A friend of mine who came with us babysat for my roommate while we were there."

"They ordered two pizzas but the second one never got touched and was stored away in the oven," he continued. "They obviously thought we would maybe eat it but completely forgot to offer us any."

Instead, the friends ended up heading home soon after, leaving the leftover pizza behind. u/DarwinismObvious said when he returned to the property a month later, it was clear something was wrong. "Upon walking into the kitchen it seemed like we had more fruit flies than usual," he said.

However, the gravity of the situation only became apparent when he opened the oven door. "The entire oven exploded out with little fruit flies and as I pulled the box out my roommate yelled 'it's leaking!' It started leaking trash juice," he said.

The mold-covered pizza had turned a decided shade of green, though some of the toppings remained intact. It was not a pleasant sight—or scent for that matter. "That pizza smelled like wet soggy garbage," u/DarwinismObvious said. "For a day or two afterwards, pizza sure didn't sound as appetizing."

Fortunately, it was relatively easy to clean up as "it stayed so perfectly neat in its own box." Before he threw it in the trash, however, u/DarwinismObvious took a picture of the decidedly green pie and shared it to Reddit. "I found it hilarious that it was the entire pizza," he said.

The internet was similarly aghast at the discovery, with Redditors chipping in with jokes and puns around the grisly find. "Do you like penicillin on your pizza?" one quipped, with another writing: "Papa Germs." A third, meanwhile, could not resist commenting that it was "still better than ham and pineapple."

The jury is still out on that one.

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