Something happened on Tuesday that hasn't taken place in decades. It requires intense, tight security, off duty police officers, private guards, an armoured car and incredible secrecy. And it's made the CEO of a huge company lose sleep just thinking about it.
What could cause so much trouble for a large conglomerate known throughout the world? It's an old and yellow piece of paper with a few words scribbled on it.
But this isn't just any ancient artifact. It contains the 'secret recipe' for Kentucky Fried Chicken, created by founder Harland Sanders 68 years ago. It hasn't been out of its hiding place in years and it's so exclusive that only two company executives have access to it - and the company won't even tell you their names, their titles or what they do.
Why is it being moved at all? The temporary relocation from one safe to another is part of a revamp of corporate security at the Louisville, Kentucky-based firm. The president of KFC, which runs a worldwide chain of almost 15,000 locations, admits he's barely slept since the plans were announced.
"I don't want to be the president who loses the recipe," Roger Eaton complains. "Imagine how terrifying that would be."
Competitors have tried to rip off the well known '11 herbs and spices' for years, but no one has come close. And trying to get to the paper that holds the secret is worse than attempting to get into the Oval Office at the White House.
It's stored in a filing cabinet equipped with two separate combinations locks, contained in a vault that opens onto a door that contains three more locks.
Get in and you're confronted with vials holding the secret substances and that telltale smell.
The company maintains it's set for anything and will temporarily place the paper in a locked briefcase handcuffed to the arm of former New York City police detective-turned-security expert Bo Dietl. "There's no way anybody could get this recipe," he warns.
Sanders created the concoction in 1940 and began his Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets - and the persona where he insisted on being called "Colonel" though he never really was one - to start the chain a decade later. The paper contains the secret and is signed by the founder in pencil.
Restaurant analyst Larry Miller calls the recipe an "almost an immeasurable thing. It's part of that important brand image that helps differentiate the KFC product."
There have been other closely guarded ingredients in the past.
The secret additive in Coca Cola, for example, is also fiercely protected and supposedly hasn't escaped since it was formulated in 1886.
And McDonald's purports to have never let out the fixings for the Special Sauce that goes on its Big Macs, although most think it's just a variant of Thousand Island Dressing.
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