# Strangest thing you discovered when you moved in your place? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932 "2016-07-14T22:32:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hbk4894](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e68b1a/32.png) [@Hbk4894](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbk4894)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/1 "2016-07-14T22:32:07Z")
Like weird mags or a secret basement etc ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/2 "2016-07-14T22:38:35Z")
The previous owner/resident was illiterate. He had painted a variety of weird symbols on the basement floor and walls, and on rocks and trees on the property. His sister was a co-owner and I assume she kept him from doing this all over the rest of the house. He also painted some kind of devil face on a board nailed to a tree facing a neighbor he didn’t like. They thanked us for taking it down. There was also a real eclectic variety of junk, the best piece was an old fashioned scythe that my kids dubbed the ‘Death Thing’. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/3 "2016-07-14T22:44:47Z")
When I moved into my old house, I found a big pile of shirt and other gift boxes in the attic, presumably stored there to be re-used. Which I did; shortly after I bought that house, I lost my job (which in this case was NOT a bad thing) and got a job where I traveled a lot. For a while, I was working in or near the town where my grandmother lived, and stayed with her. If I took my cat with me, I used the shirt boxes for kitty litter. Those same people also left a wrapped wedding present in a closet. The wife told me to do whatever I wanted with it; don’t remember the story but they hadn’t attended the wedding and it wasn’t an item they could use themselves. It turned out to be a single place setting of fancy china, which I eventually sold at a garage sale. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/4 "2016-07-14T22:59:00Z")
I don’t know if this is unusual, but when I moved into this house the back yard was empty dirt, which when the rainy season came around turned into a rich green sea of weeds. While digging up the weeds I found a variety of junk, including broken glass, bones (not human, I assume they had a dog) and a mason jar full of kitchen grease. I’m still turning up broken glass to this day, mostly beer bottles I think. Also, the two upstairs bedroom doors had padlocks on them\*. Now I know the previous owners were an older married couple, and I believe they had an adult son living in the downstairs. Made me wonder what the family relationships were like. \*My father used to buy run-down houses, fix them up and then rent them out, eventually selling them to the tenants if they could handle a mortgage. One of those houses had a bedroom with a hasp and padlock on the outside, as if to keep someone in. We wondered about that too. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/5 "2016-07-15T00:23:45Z")
Home made sex tapes in the attic. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/6 "2016-07-15T00:27:41Z")
A huge cache of buried clam shells. A very large number of shells, not the debris from one clamming party. Something along the lines of an industrial waste deposit. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/7 "2016-07-15T00:50:52Z")
A green twist tie shellacked over in the polyurethane floor coating. In the living room. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/8 "2016-07-15T00:52:12Z")
Something… in a gallon jar buried in the yard up to the lid. We couldn’t get the lid off, and so we dug it up. The contents looked very organic and disgusting, but we could never figure out what it was. Fortunately, the lid never came off. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/9 "2016-07-15T01:10:50Z")
I didn’t find any surprises from previous owners, merely because I was buying a new condo. What I found out was the builders were idiots. I purchased the model unit, and the basement was finished with a bar and carpeting. Alas, there must have been a nationwide shortage of electrical sockets. Not a one down stairs. The next little surprise was the furnace was plumed backwards–so it ran 30 seconds, and then shut down. Froze my buns off the first night. I had had the same problem, same city in the apartment I was previously rented. My suspicions were later confirmed when the building inspector acquired shiny metal bracelets for having three hands. Seems he developed quite the blind eye for code violations. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/10 "2016-07-15T02:16:49Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Something… in a gallon jar buried in the yard up to the lid. We couldn’t get the lid off, and so we dug it up. The contents looked very organic and disgusting, but we could never figure out what it was. Fortunately, the lid never came off. Did you have it x-rayed? It sounds like someone used this jar as a pet casket. The pastor of the Presbyterian church I attended as a teenager in the late 1970s found a huge stash of hardcore porno mags when he moved into this house. :eek: He used this as a teaching opportunity one night at our youth group meeting, and when he said, “…when I looked at them…” we all hooted and hollered “You looked at them? YOU LOOKED AT THEM?” That’s kids for you. When we settled down, he added that as a married man, he couldn’t believe some of the things he saw and that anyone derived any kind of pleasure from looking at, or for that matter doing, some of the things those magazines depicted. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/11 "2016-07-15T02:18:52Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Something… in a gallon jar buried in the yard up to the lid. We couldn’t get the lid off, and so we dug it up. The contents looked very organic and disgusting, but we could never figure out what it was. Fortunately, the lid never came off. Homemade kimchi? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/12 "2016-07-15T02:28:57Z")
The downstairs bathroom had wall paper with very large roses on it, but they had papered the whole room with the design upside down. The difference was very subtle, but if you looked closely, it had the effect of making the roses look like they were all dying. In a bathroom. :o ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/13 "2016-07-15T03:33:45Z")
I once rented a furnished apartment,and went to rearrange the furniture – behind an easy chair, the wall was a different color. They had repainted the walls, and didn’t bother to move the furniture, and just painted around it. Another place, I found a hip flask of whiskey under the mattress. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/14 "2016-07-15T04:01:31Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > The downstairs bathroom had wall paper with very large roses on it, but they had papered the whole room with the design upside down. > The difference was very subtle, but if you looked closely, it had the effect of making the roses look like they were all dying. > > In a bathroom. > > :o (accidental duplicate post) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/15 "2016-07-15T04:02:43Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > The downstairs bathroom had wall paper with very large roses on it, but they had papered the whole room with the design upside down. > The difference was very subtle, but if you looked closely, it had the effect of making the roses look like they were all dying. > > In a bathroom. > > :o At least it wasn’t a painting hung upside-down in a gallery for 47 days! 😛 > **[The Boat (Matisse)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Bateau)** > > The Boat (French: Le Bateau) is a paper-cut from 1953 by Henri Matisse. The picture is composed from pieces of paper cut out of sheets painted with gouache, and was created during the last years of Matisse's life. > Le Bateau caused a minor stir when the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which housed it, hung the work upside-down for 47 days in 1961 until Genevieve Habert, a stockbroker, noticed the mistake and notified a guard. Habert later informed The New York Times, which in turn notified Monro... Also in my old house, I was digging in the yard, and dug up the blades from a hand trimmer - but just the rusted-together blades. The handles, which were presumably wood, were gone. I started to get worried about what I might dig up next, but that was the end of it. (The house’s first owner had lived there for about 70 years.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/16 "2016-07-15T04:30:16Z")
Electrical receptacles that were wired with regular lamp cord, leading to extension cords in the basement. And the entire basement was painted with metallic silver paint. And a crucifix on every single wall of the house. And I’ve already mentioned the tombstone in another thread. ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/17 "2016-07-15T13:32:43Z")
In 2004, pulled down paneling to re-do the walls and found farm house wallpaper and a calendar from 1957 still hanging on the wall. Found a little cubby hole in the basement full of empty porn VHS covers, and a bent, burnt spoon…luckily no needles ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/18 "2016-07-15T13:37:16Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Electrical receptacles that were wired with regular lamp cord, leading to extension cords in the basement. Oh dear Og! I found an outlet wired with zip cord in my house in New York. They did most everything else right in the wiring, but this one was at the far end of the house and it looks like they just ran out of cable. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/19 "2016-07-15T13:55:39Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Something… in a gallon jar buried in the yard up to the lid. We couldn’t get the lid off, and so we dug it up. The contents looked very organic and disgusting, but we could never figure out what it was. Fortunately, the lid never came off. Someone buried a pet, probably an exotic. My sister buried several snakes, crayfish etc in mayo jars and we found some of them years later. I found a very realistic bomb a few years after moving into one rental - it was on a high storage shelf in the garage and made from road flares. Had I not been able to clearly read the markings and see the striker end, I would have called the FD. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932/20 "2016-07-15T14:03:22Z")
Two things: 1. At our current house, we found that the previous owners had done the baffling combination of installing a new garbage disposal, neglecting to punch out the dishwasher drain punch-out, and then washing (and leaving!) a load of dishes in the dishwasher. So we came in to a full dishwasher full of dishes, with about 2" of nasty, stagnant funky water in the bottom. We’re still baffled as to how they didn’t unload it before they left, or notice that the thing didn’t drain. 1. In college, my roommate and I moved dorm rooms, and my roommate and I looked up into the ceiling tiles (part of the room had acoustic tile ceilings) to see if anyone had stashed anything up there and forgotten about it. People had a habit of forgetting liquor bottles and what-not up there. We found a massive stash of gay porn, and multiple bottles of lube. Apparently one of the previous residents was on the down-low. We never knew who though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strangest-thing-you-discovered-when-you-moved-in-your-place/759932.md?page=2)