Well, here’s an ‘80s throwback you weren’t expecting: Garfield. Not the old president, but the orange, lasagna-loving cat who was the star of his own comic strip and cartoon.

French environmental workers have been cleaning up plastic Garfield phones on the beach. For the past three decades, the phones have been washing up on the shores of the Iroise coast. Volunteers and locals would periodically swarm the beach to pick up the unusual pieces of litter.

Back when Garfield was a popular character, it may have been cool to find such a souvenir in the sand. But for all this time, the phones have been nothing but a public nuisance. Now, the mystery of their origin has finally been solved. And, no Odie is not behind it.

The BBC reports that locals had long suspected a shipping container was responsible for the thousands of scattered phones. No one was sure if the goods had fallen off a ship or otherwise, but a farmer recently recalled where he spotted the first phone back in 1983.

The man shared the location of the shipping container, which was in a cave that was only accessible during low tide. Since the area where the phones and container are now part of a designated marine life park, environmental advocates launched a new campaign about the phone litter. This is what attracted the man’s attention.

The farmer, Rene Morvan, told a local news team Franceinfo:

“You had to really know the area well. We found a container aground in a fissure. It was open. Many of the things were gone, but there was a stock of phones. At the time, there was a lot of things that came to us from the sea.”

Morvan led FranceInfo and local anti-pollution group, Ar Viltansou to the shipping container. It is still submerged beneath rocks, water, and sand, and many of the phones are still intact. With that being the case, it is presumed that a total cleanup will be impossible.

Too many remnants of the orange cat remain and the tide will continue to carry them out over time. As relieved as the locals are to pinpoint the source, not much can be done to harvest the entire lot. Workers also found sea life living among the plastic phones, wires, and wreckage. Starfish, crabs, and fish were found nearby.

On a lighter note, these old vintage phones can catch upwards of $100 on sites like Etsy and eBay. So, if you have one of these phones lying around, and it wasn’t found on a beach, perhaps you want to look into putting it up for sale. Someone out there is a huge Garfield fan and would love to buy it.

Watch the video below to see Garfield’s plastic resurrection on the French beach and to learn more about this story.

Secretly, do you wish you had one of these phones? Did you love Garfield back in the day? Is there a similar litter mystery going on in your neighborhood?