The Mystery of the Partially Eaten Cookie Dough on the Ground

The above is a picture of a partially eaten container of raw cookie dough. I noticed this container of Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough on the sidewalk as I was leaving work today. It seemed like a very odd thing to see just lying on a sidewalk in the middle of downtown Bellevue, Washington and I figured that there had to be a story behind it.

Throughout my life I have of course seen many things just lying around on sidewalks, usually litter. Occasionally I find something especially odd which makes me wonder how it appeared there. For example, at several bus stops I've seen left behind shoes and even shorts. It often made me wonder if there was someone out there walking around wearing just one shoe with their other foot bare. And whether or not there was someone out there wearing only one shoe, what lead them to leaving one behind?

Based on the sight of this cookie dough container it appears that someone bought it at a grocery store (there are a couple nearby this particular sidewalk), ate some raw cookie dough, and then left the rest of it on the sidewalk.

"Why?" I think to myself. "Why not only litter but leave behind perfectly good cookie dough on the sidewalk that one could eat, whether cooked or not?" It seemed like such a senseless waste.

Perhaps the cookie dough consumer took a bite, was planning on eating the rest later, and accidentally dropped it, leaving it behind on the sidewalk without bothering to put it into the trash.

Maybe this is part of an experiment. For all I know this could be something set up by some psychology students from either Bellevue College or the University of Washington. Maybe they're actually nearby, attempting to see if anyone will notice the random raw cookie dough just lying on the ground.

Maybe the raw cookie dough was actually stolen from one of the nearby grocery stores. And perhaps the hypothetical thief got caught by store security, so they ran from them, dropping their stolen goods in their attempt to escape.

In all likelihood I will probably never know what events lead to the fact that a bunch of raw cookie dough was just left behind on the sidewalks of Bellevue, Washington. I suppose it's not the most urgent mystery that needs to be solved, although the thought of perfectly good cookie dough being just utterly wasted does irk me somewhat. Although I suppose there will be plenty of ants living amongst the grass by the sidewalk that are more than happy about the large array of sugary goodness that appeared out of nowhere.