Garfield phone mystery finally solved after 35 years

Garfield phones have been mysteriously washing up on French beaches. Now we know why. Photo / Facebook

Almost every day for the last 35 years, plastic Garfield phones have been washing up on the beach in picturesque Brittany, France. No one knew where the novelty handsets were coming from - until now.

Volunteers from the environmental group Ar Viltansou have finally figured out a mystery that has been puzzling people for more than three decades.

The phones have come from a lost shipping container that reportedly got swept off a cargo ship in 1983.

A local farmer in Brittany remembered spotting the first Garfield phone after a storm in that same year, in a secluded coastal cave accessible only at low tide.

At high tide, the cave seems to spit out Garfield phones. Sometimes the full handset will wash up on the beach, at other times it is just the eyes of the lasagne-loving cartoon cat.

"We found this incredible cave that was 30 metres deep and right at the end [was the] the remains of the container," Ar Viltansou's president Claire Simonin-Le Meur told Euronews.

"At the cave opening there was a Garfield lodged in the roof, so we knew we weren't mistaken and this was where they were."

The container is still partially buried and can't be accessed so no one can know for sure how many plastic telephones are still in there. Garfield phones are likely to continue to appear on Brittany's beaches for a while longer.