Tonight at 7, on King-5’s Evening Magazine, you’ll see one of Fremont’s own denizens amidst a collection that surpasses all others in the world: 5,239 rubber ducks.

I knew I was in the right place when I saw the neon rubber duck in her window (and in my head, I heard Sesame Street’s Ernie singing about his rubber duckie).

A Guinness World Record holder since 2003, Charlotte Lee, 40 - an assistant professor in UW’s Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering - has dedicated the entire small basement of the Fremont condo she’s lived in since December 2008 to her “rubber duckies.” It took her husband - once a reluctant supporter, now an avid duck hunter - months to put up the shelves and cabinet that line the walls down there.

“I like the ducks, he likes the hunt,” Lee said. “It’s a good partnership.”

The collection in 1996 and began as gifts from friends to augment the rubber ducks they noticed she had in her bathroom. Soon, she had 13 or 14 - enough to spark an interest to build a collection. “It started out as a joke. You’re supposed to collect something respectable. But over time, the joke was on me. It’s become a serious collection, over all odds!”
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