18 Homeowners Shared The Weird Things Previous Tenants Left Behind, And They Range From Super Cool To Really Creepy
When I was little, I'd go over to the fields and woods behind my house and dig, determined to find the "fossils" of ancient civilizations who lived before me (in what was now just a random Midwest suburb). I was fascinated by history, old shit, and told everyone I'd be an archeologist when I grew up.
While becoming a BuzzFeed writer isn't exactly fulfilling my childhood dreams of archeology, I find there are some similarities. I can't *physically* dig up old things, but I can figuratively dig them up online — like all the strange, creepy, or even really cool things people found in their homes that were left behind by the tenants before them.
So — from left-behind safes to literal fossils — let's get into all the weird shit people found in (or around) their homes and shared with us, the curious, modern people of the Interwebs:
1.This homeowner found portraits in their crawl space from the home's original 1960s owners that have never been moved:
2.Someone allegedly found a dinosaur bone in the basement of their 15th-century house in North-Eastern France:
Now THIS is what I was looking for in my backyard digs.
3.While renovating their grandma's house, this person came across the prosthetic leg of their great-grandfather in the attic:
I'm imagining great-grandpa's leg comes to life at night.
4.This homeowner found an old Ouija board in the attic of their 100+ year-old house:
Creepy af, but did the previous people purposely leave this behind to mess with them?
5.This person found a 15-year-old stash of canned food in their crawl space, left behind by the house’s previous owner:
Apocalypse ready!
6.This person found a locked gun safe in the creek on the back of their property:
I could see childhood me finding something like this near my creek and thinking marvelous treasures were inside (not guns).
7.Ok, this one is more cool than creepy, but it does help provide evidence to that old Berenstain Bears conspiracy theory (back in 2015, the Internet was shocked to find out that the Berenstein bears were actually the Berenstain Bears). Anyways, this person found these "Berenstein" Bears tags when they were cleaning out their grandma's house:
8.Another cool one – someone found an invite to Walt Disney's daughter's wedding concealed behind a bathroom vanity while renovating their house in LA:
9.This person found money from the 1800s stacked in a "secret drawer" left behind in their 1885 house:
10.Back to weird — this person found 150 pieces of corn in the floor of their house from the 1700s:
u/BobgySMC / Via reddit.com
Commenters said the corn could've been used for insulation or sanitation — as in, a way to "wipe" after going to the restroom. Who knew I'd be feeling so grateful for toilet paper today!
11.This homeowner found this creepy-ass portrait inside the wall of their house, which they've lived in for 46 (46!!!) years:
And as if it couldn't get any creepier, u/BeginningSir2984 said that "an old man called energy" was faintly written on the back of the portrait. K, I'd move out!
12.These homeowners discovered a locked safe in the floor during the remodel of their old home:
Fun discovery (and I found quite a few of these in my search), but this one turned up empty.
13.This person found an old travel brochure from the World Trade Center while cleaning out their house, which is unfortunately pretty dark:
14.This person casually discovered an old graveyard in the woods behind their new house:
15.These people moved into a new house, only to discover someone left three dead crows nailed to the trees in their backyard:
Commenters came through and said that farmers do this to keep crows away from crops. You can even buy fake dead crows if, ya know, you wanna spook some neighbors who haven't got a clue.
16.While renovating a 100-year-old house, these people found what looks like a samurai sword under the house:
17.This person found a bunch of BONES while cleaning out the crawlspace of a 130-year-old house:
18.And lastly, this past month, a dentist found a possibly ancient human mandible embedded in the travertine floor at his parent's house in Europe:
The story inevitably blew up on Reddit, and u/Kidipadeli75 became inundated with interest from researchers and scientists across the globe, who, as of now, are working with him to identify the specimen (the power of the Internet!).
So far, scientists have estimated the stone came from a quarry in Turkey and is between 0.7 million to 1.8 million years old. They determined the mandible belongs to a human "of some kind," but further inspection is needed to determine its ancient or more modern origins.
I guess ya never know when your next home renovation could come with archaeological discovery (watch out for travertine!).
That's all I got! What strange, creepy, or unexpected things have you found in your home? Let us know in the comments!
