Woman with Huge Hippo-Related Collection Vying for World Record
— -- For one Connecticut woman, hippos are the way to her heart.
Becky Fusco, 29, has been collecting all-thing hippopotamuses since she was 10 years old. The new mom possesses 604 items and will be presenting evidence of her colossal collection to the Guinness Book of World Records, in hopes to win a world record holder title.
"I'm excited because it gives my collection a purpose and a reason to come out of the boxes," Fusco of Meriden, Connecticut told ABC News. "It brings back lots of memories."
Fusco said she's loved hippos since owning her first, lucky hippo figurine that she kept on her desk in grade school.
By the time she began dating her now-husband Jim when she was 15, Fusco said she already had a room filled with hippo items.
"I was living at my parents' house and [Jim] said, 'Wow, you really like hippos,'" Fusco said, laughing. "Fortunately, it didn't scare him away. If he met me in my 20s, I'm not so sure if he'd feel the same way."
"As I got older and learned about the animal, they seem very gentle," she continued. "They're herbivores, yet they are the fiercest animals in Africa because they are very territorial. They are beautiful to observe from afar and that's the cool thing about them."
Fusco had a hippo-themed baby shower when she was pregnant with her now 11-month-old son, Jonathan, who has a safari-themed nursery featuring hippos.
Over the years, friends and family gifted Fusco with hippo objects. She has accumulated 604 hippo-related items to date.
Her collection includes the game Hungry Hungry Hippos, of course, among the more unique trinkets like salt and pepper shakers, Russian hippo nesting dolls and some of her favorites -- children's books and Christmas ornaments.
When her husband suggested she may have the world's largest collection of hippo items, he and Fusco decided she should try for the title with Guinness.
There is currently no world record holder for the largest collection of hippo objects, Guinness confirmed to ABC News.
Judy Fuerst, curator of the Barker Museum in Cheshire, Jim Knox, curator of education at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport and Chrissy Shore, educator at the Beardsley Zoo, all volunteered their time to witness and help in the counting of Fusco's collection.
The event was recorded on video and that evidence will be sent to Guinness, which will make its final decision within 12 weeks.
