 "Photo: Wayne Biebel")
 "Photo: Wayne Biebel")
Walk into Ian Lukert's bedroom, and take a deep breath. Lingering aromas of vanilla, peach, cherry and wintergreen have blended together, but with the added bitter twinge of tobacco. This perfume is a product of Lukert's latest achievement, which he hopes will earn him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Lukert has constructed a tower of 1,275 empty cans of chewing tobacco. The second-year Edinboro student began stacking the cans in his home outside of Harrisburg in the summer of 2008 during a day of boredom with one of his friends.
"Me and my buddy Ben, we were just playing with chew cans all day," Lukert says with a laugh. "We built a tiny little tower. When I?moved here I?guess I?was homesick...I just kept building it."
The building process isn't exactly fun and games for Lukert. This is his tenth tower attempt. A slightly smaller tower he built before his current one fell over, so he had to start over. The cans are not glued together; they are freestanding.
"It's a pain in the ass," Lukert says with a snicker. "I want to quit after I get into Guinness."
The pursuit for Guinness' validation began in December when Lukert e-mailed the world-renown source of all things record-setting. At the time of his e-mail, the tower was only up to 825 cans, about 450 fewer than its current amount. Lukert told Guinness his tower was like no other.
"I told them my tower was the most unique and largest chew can tower in the world," Lukert says.
The path to earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records is a lengthy one, but not all that difficult. Those who believe they hold a world record can create an account at Guinness' Web site and submit their record.
It can take months for the folks at Guinness to review a submission and decide if it's worthy of being a world record. If successful, a variety of evidence must be sent to Guinness, which Lukert says includes a professional photograph of his tower and visitations from two prominent members of society.
It's not exactly a tower of cans, but more like a wave of them. Lukert had to change the design several times before developing the wavy shape he has now.
"You gotta put a little swish-swash in it and stuff, you can't just built it straight," Lukert explains, while referencing a piece of yellow paper he uses to figure out how many of each can variety he has. "You gotta count how many of each brand you have, then once you figure that out it's just dumb guessing."
Lukert defines himself as "mostly redneck, but part geek." He dabbles in Star Wars collectibles, which are neatly placed around his room surrounding the chew can tower. But his work boots and plain blue T-shirt are the calling cards of an easy-going country man.
Not all of the cans belong to Lukert. While he does chew tobacco, most of the cans have been donated to him by his friends. In fact, when he first started making his larger towers, Lukert saw it as a way to quit chewing.
"My goal was to get into Guinness and then quit. I haven't quit yet," Lukert says.
Still, for Lukert, getting into Guinness is very much a possibility. He's working on having Edinboro Police Chief Jeff Craft or Mayor Mary Anne Horne visit his tower as evidence for the records book. As for adding any more cans to the tower, he says it's not very likely.
"I don't want to, but other people want me to," Lukert says. "Or I might just hire someone to do it for me."
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