In-N-Out burger mystery solved: This is how a West Coast burger wound up on the streets of NYC

How did a perfect In-N-Out burger wind up intact on the streets of New York? With some planning and a smidge of bad luck. Click ahead to read 31 things you didn't know about In-N-Out >>> How did a perfect In-N-Out burger wind up intact on the streets of New York? With some planning and a smidge of bad luck. Click ahead to read 31 things you didn't know about In-N-Out >>> Photo: Chris Preovolos Photo: Chris Preovolos Image 1 of / 37 Caption Close In-N-Out burger mystery solved: This is how a West Coast burger wound up on the streets of NYC 1 / 37 Back to Gallery

The mystery of just how, exactly, an In-N-Out burger landed on the streets of New York in such pristine condition has been solved.

A photo of a Double-Double, looking fresh off the grill, was widely circulated on Twitter last weekend as everyone attempted to explain just how a burger from a West Coast fast food chain — with the nearest outpost estimated to be about 1,500 miles away — could wind up on the streets of Jamaica, Queens in New York City, at 6:30 in the morning.

"It genuinely shook me to my core," burger discoverer Lincoln Boehm told the New York Post.

My buddy Lincoln found a perfectly wrapped In-N-Out burger...



On the streets of Queens, New York!



I AM FREAKING OUT pic.twitter.com/TZbGvLn9N0 — David Gardner (@byDavidGardner) July 20, 2019

As it turns out, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation-slash-person behind the madness, and that reason is a 16-year-old In-N-Out burger transporting genius.

PREVIOUSLY: A pristine In-N-Out burger appeared on a New York street

Boehm penned a first-person piece on Vice News laying out his discovery; it seems that high school student Helen Vivas, 16, saw the burger mystery unfold on social media and reached out to Boehm to explain herself (and that burger).

Vivas, who goes to school in New York, was apparently on a trip to visit family friends in San Diego. She had booked a red-eye for the return trip home on July 19, and stopped at an Encinitas, Calif., In-N-Out for some "in-flight snacks."

Vivas picked up two Double-Doubles and two single cheeseburgers to bring home, according to Boehm, carrying the precious cargo onboard and cradling it on her lap the entire flight — a true pro — consuming just a single burger before she reached her destination.

It was once she arrived in the city at 5:27 a.m. that the burger mishap struck. After taking the AirTrain from the airport to Jamaica, she saw her transfer bus a block away and decided to make a run for it.

"She started running down the street to try and catch the bus with the now slightly greasy bag of three In-N-Out Burgers in her hand," Boehm wrote. "The good news: She caught the bus. The bad news: The bag burst open at the bottom while she made this fateful sprint."

Tragedy.

Somehow, Vivas managed to catch two of the three burgers, leaving just that one fateful burger in the street, to be discovered by Boehm and his wife just a short time later.

Although many folks contacted Boehm claiming to be the mystery burger-leaver, he seemed to believe Vivas' version of events, writing, "Helen was sincere, and from the jump I knew this person may hold the answers I've spent the last four days searching for."

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Vivas even apparently provided receipts — both literally and figuratively — including an Instagram story of the In-N-Out where she purchased the burgers, photos of her flight details and boarding gate, and even a screenshot of her credit card receipt showing the burger purchases.

So, that's one mystery solved. But there's just one more thing: How did Vivas manage to transport such a perfectly intact burger all the way across the country?

This is where Vivas' burger transporting genius shines through, where others have failed. She apparently told the person at the counter that she would be traveling and they made her order special. The Double-Doubles were made, without sauce, while the cheeseburgers were "packed fresh" with vegetables on the side in baggies, according to Boehm.

Read the rest of the burger saga here.

Dianne de Guzman is a Digital Senior Editor at SFGATE. Email: dianne.deguzman@sfgate.com | Twitter: @diannedeguzman