‘Imagine that 911 call though’: Family makes what they think is a grisly discovery in their exhaust pipe, but it’s just how cars work

When you watch too much true crime, everything seems suspicious. According to TikTok, Kim DeFisher and crew thought they found human hair in their car’s tailpipe. Was a dead body stuffed in the vehicle’s undercarriage? Had DeFisher discovered a crime scene? As it turns out, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

In a recent TikTok post, DeFisher pulls what looks like lengths of human hair from her car’s exhaust. As DeFisher, who typically shares about her Artic Fox Wildlife Rescue in New York, finds more big clumps of hair — like the worst drain clog imaginable — she and onlookers suspect something’s wrong. “I’m really scared, like seriously,” a girl’s voice off-camera says. “I don’t know what animal that would be, all I can think is, like, skunk,” she added.

When DeFisher, elbow deep in the tailpipe says, “I don’t feel any extremities,” we couldn’t help but agree with someone who commented, “GIRL I WAS INVESTED ON THE POTENTIAL TRUE CRIME.” But a bit more than a minute in, a boy, who had been watching the whole time, ends the suspense.

It’s muffler hair

At about the 1:15 mark, a boy who had been watching Kim DeFisher discover long strands of what looks like human hair from the tailpipe, finally asks, “Are you sure you’re not pulling out the muffler?” Say what, you ask? Car mufflers are filled with fiberglass, and when some mufflers get old, that fiberglass begins to shred into what looks and feels like human hair.

If this is news to you, you’re not alone, according to the comments on DeFisher’s post. “50 years old and I have never heard of muffler hair… gotta love TikTok!! 😂😂😂” someone commented. “[Y]ou guys went from straight detectives to strictly confused 😂❤️” another added. “You can see him smirking in the car reflection as you guys are pulling it out 😂😂,” one comment noted. Did the kid know all along?

The 2022 muffler hair 911 call

Had Kim DeFisher called 911 over her supposed crime scene discovery, she wouldn’t have been the first person to confuse muffler hair with the hair of a person or an animal. In 2022, a Wisconsin woman named Deborah Lieber called the police when the same thing happened to her (she shared her discovery on Facebook). The cops came, and they were stumped, too, but determined there was no apparent crime, and figured it must be a prank.

After some research, Lieber realized it was muffler hair. “Whatever it was (wig, hair, fur) all the options seemed weird. I thought it was straight out of The Ring or Blair Witch Project. I was ready to pack my bags and sell the house that day,” Lieber said.