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People Share The Weirdest Things They’ve Found While Moving Into Their Home

Buying a new home can be a very stressful time. However, once you're in a new home, particularly an older house, part of the fun can be exploring the building and finding all of the hidden nooks and crannies littered about the place.

One curious person took to Reddit to find out some of the strangest things that people have found when exploring their new houses, by asking, "People that have moved into a house/apartment, what's the most interesting thing you've found from the previous occupants?"

The internet had plenty of stories to share! So, please find below, a series of the most unsettling, hilarious, and downright weird things that people found when moving into their new home!

Finding Out That The Neighbor Was A Murder Suspect

Unsplash | David von Diemar

"Crammed under a built-in drawer below a bedroom closet was a police report from the late 60s delineating a missing person/kidnapping case involving the prior, now deceased owner who at the time was a teenager. It also mentions my next-door neighbor who was a person of interest in the case. Haven't talked to him about it, and not sure I want to bring it up..." —alisleaves

Well, that's one hell of a way to be introduced to your new neighbor! This person actually went on to post in an update that it is actually a lovely neighborhood and that they haven't had any problems yet!

Finding Drugs

Unsplash | Markus Spiske

"My mom and I had moved into a studio apartment following her successfully completing drug court when I was about 11 years old. I climbed on the counter in the kitchen to clean the top shelf of a cupboard and found a bag of crystal meth. She flushed the bag in front of me, but later in life told me she could have sold it for $200 easily on the street. Always proud of her." — Syndi-

This is an incredibly powerful message that this mother conveyed to her child during this difficult period. Recovery is never easy, and what this mother did is incredibly strong.

Handmade Board Games

Unsplash | Julian Hochgesang

"Way back on January 1, 1976, my family moved into an apartment. I was 10 years old at the time. We had just come to Canada in June.

"While we were cleaning my room before painting it, we took off the radiator cover to clean the inside. Under the radiator cover was a complete, hand-made game of Monopoly. I didn't really know English at the time and didn't know what Monopoly was. Later I found out that the two boys living in that room had been a couple of years older than me. Their parents had been very strict old-world traditions and had refused to let them buy a Monopoly game, so they had handcrafted their own and kept it hidden in the radiator." — Jugmentor

Christ, I can't imagine wanting to play Monopoly that bad! I hate that game and its fury-inducing mechanics! It is now banned in our house.

Old Lottery Tickets

Unsplash | dylan nolte

"My uncle bought a house from people whose mother had passed away. They left a good amount of stuff in the house, mostly worthless. Christmas decorations, cutlery, etc. In the back of one closet, we found a trash bag full of lottery scratch-offs. We started going through them and they were all winners. Turned out to be about 12k in winning tickets. We took a few to the convenience store to check them and they were all past the cash by date and the state lottery would no longer pay them out." — Impulse618

Who knows why the previous tenants left them there in the first place. People speculated that maybe the previous tenants had been saving them for a rainy day and didn't realize that they would expire!

Saturday Night Live Props

Unsplash | DiChatz

"A Saturday Night Live script with handwritten notes in it. This was in a Brooklyn apartment at the base of a shelf above the closet. It appeared to be pretty old. I looked up the name of the writer on the script and he was active at SNL about 10 years ago. Occasionally I'd get mail with the same name on it." — Amesly

This is one of the coolest things to find on this list! I'd be tempted to get it framed and hang it in the apartment as a little slice of history from the occupants of that building.

Finding Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars

Unsplash | Viacheslav Bublyk

"My cousins and his wife moved into their first house, which two owners before him had been a medium-sized drug dealer. The rumor was that there was still cash money stashed somewhere in the house, the previous owner thought it was in the backyard and spent their weekends digging holes to no avail.

"My cousin and his wife would go around putting their ears to the various walls and knocking on them listening for hollow or dead spots. He and his wife talked about drilling holes in some of the walls but decided against it.

"After a year they decided to repaint and were going through and came to one of the bedrooms, which was the ONLY room in the house that had wallpaper. They stripped it off and saw the square marked on the wall. Turned out part of it was a supporting wall, right up against one side of the square. So they cut from the other side and when they pulled the wood and stuff out they found 30 bricks of cash a little over $950,000." — ElliotReidsBajingo

This person also went on to say that they reported the money, and due to the fact that the drug dealer/previous owner of the house had died, that they could keep the money after they had paid the appropriate taxes on the cash.

WWII Memorabilia

Reddit | maxybambam

"Not my own story but my S.O. was helping a mutual friend move into her new house. In the attic, they find a locked chest, and they give up looking for the key. A few months later- my friend found a key and immediately tried to open the chest. To her delight, it worked.

"Inside was a fragile collection of newspapers all from WWII. I've seen some of the clippings, and it's absolutely surreal." — humanscantpollinate

We had something quite similar happen in a house when I was a child actually. It was quite common in our hometown for people to have used newspapers to insulate their lofts, so we found a whole host of 1940s newspapers. It is absolutely fascinating to peek into the past so viscerally.

Finding Sex Toys

Unsplash | Sean Stratton

"My brother found a mysterious wrapped bundle in the drop ceiling of his house and waited for me to be there to open it. We thought it might be drugs or money or something illegal, so I wore gloves when I unwrapped it. Turns out gloves were a great idea. It was a double penetration dildo, wrapped in about 4 plastic shopping bags." — MauraMcBadass

Four plastic bags is some level of protection! Also, this is a perfect example of why you should always wear gloves when opening mysterious packages!

Finding Evidence Of Infidelity

Unsplash | Liam Truong

"I renovated the basement and tore down the drop ceiling. An envelope fell out in the process. I was hoping for money but I got something better. In the envelope was a bunch of evidence collected by the ex-husband that she was cheating on him. Credit card receipts, hotel receipts, lewd emails, and dickpics. It was gross but awesome at the same time." — hanginonwith2fingers

This person tried to track down the person who had left this behind to see what had happened to them, however, there was no trace of them online or in the phone book.

Finding An Old Speakeasy

Unsplash | Ice Tea

"Back in the day, I rented the upstairs of an old brick house in the small town I grew up in. It was the first brick building to be built and served as a liquor store around the time of prohibition (In Canada on the border of the US). In the attic, I found some old liquor bottles in the rafters.

"The house down the street was owned by Al Capone. It has secret passageways in the walls and even a jail cell in the basement. My father's childhood home had a hidden cellar under the living room. And some of his neighbors had tunnels in their basements that had been blocked up." — AnarchistBusinessMan

One of the main downsides of buying newly built houses/apartments is that you will never find amazingly cool stuff like this! This person also said that as cool as the bottles were they decided to leave them behind for the next person to live there to also enjoy finding!

The Strangest Collection Of Items

Unsplash | ABEL MARQUEZ

"I found a bunch of coins from different countries, a bunch of u.s. coins from the 1800s-early 1900s, black and white BDSM porn that looked to be super old, and an articulated cat skeleton. All inside a large trunk in the attic." — bowyer-betty

That must have been one hell of a party they would have when they brought this trunk out!

Animal Skeletons

Unsplash | Kevin Angelsø

"My wife and I moved our family into a fairly large house a few years back. Because of its size, it took us about a year to look in the loft of the second garage but when we did we found a horse skeleton. After confronting the previous owner, it turned out that when he was young, his dad’s beloved horse died and we figured he just didn’t want to get rid of her. The previous owner paid to have it removed and had the whole loft cleaned but boy that was a hell of a surprise." — vaseline_my_wene

They were lucky that the previous owner paid to have it removed, as I can't say I would have fancied picking apart a horse skeleton and lugging it out to the trash!

The Mysterious Painting

Unsplash | Mika Baumeister

"We found a massive painting of a meadow with a deer in an ornate frame in our attic. Only 1 way into the attic, neither were big enough to get the painting in or out. Even weirder, attics were not standard in this subdivision.

"The previous owners walled in the rafters, put the portrait up there and then made the only door into too small to get the portrait out. Needless to say, we left it there for the next owners to find." — coralraerose

Rare Gemstones In The Garden

Reddit | liblibpizzapizza

"Former tenant cut and cleaned rough opal stones. He threw all of his scraps into the back yard. I’ve found some really beautiful ones. I showed him one i found and he said it had a few thousand dollars worth of opal in it! Also, there is (according to the former tenants) an armadillo buried next to the house." — liblibpizzapizza

The above image was actually uploaded by the person who wrote this to show some of the random stones they can find in their garden. What a wonderful little surprise!

Finding Bags And Bags Of High-Quality Drugs

Unsplash | Roberto Valdivia

"I rented my house out for two years when I went overseas for a job. The couple that rented from me were in their 40's. He did some kind of design work and his wife was a teacher. They rent on time every month and when I came back I checked everything over and gave them their security deposit back. They kept my place spotless.

"About a month after I had moved back in I went up into the attic to look for a box of Xmas stuff. That’s when I saw a yellow gym bag that I didn't recognize. I opened it and found 7 one pound zip lock bags of high-grade marijuana.

"I contacted my former renters and told them I'd found a bag in my attic, and asked them if they'd forgotten it. They said no, absolutely not. I never mentioned that I had opened it but I figured they probably knew I did and just wrote it off. Now in the year 2020 it's really not a big deal to have pot around, but I’m talking about the late 1980's." — TaloneyeMan

This person said that they ended up giving the weed to a friend of a friend who gave them a load of cash for it. I guess that's one way to solve the problem!

Ominous Kid's Drawings

Unsplash | Gabriel Sollmann

"When you go on the balcony for our apartment there’s a kid's chalk drawing (or paint? It doesn't wash off but it looks like chalk) of a sad face that says 'i am sad' under it, which I've always been unnerved by." — americas-sass

This person went on to highlight that it is actually etched on with a rock as they cannot wash it away. I'd be tempted to paint over that, it sounds horrifically depressing!

Old Cat Toys

Unsplash | Sarah Brown

"Found out that there's a spot where you can get under the cabinets in the kitchen. My cat hid there a lot the first couple of days, and after that, I noticed a mysterious increase in dusty cat toys. Eventually, he dragged all of the previous tenants' cats' toys out from under there." — tugeracesullivan

I just like the idea of a cat bringing out new toys seemingly out of nowhere and their owners wondering if their cat now has a job and is buying their own toys!

Lost Love Letters

Isabela Kronemberger | Unsplash

"When I was eight, we rented a victorian house for a while and found a love letter from 1912 in the banister of the stairs." — neonboogerz

This person actually wrote another post where they transcribed as much as they could of the note, it read:

"Edna Mae Allen 1912, Well Edna, thought that I would write and tell that I loved you. William that you were with came to town but I don't really think that you love him. I better not see him or I will beat him up for going with my girl. Listen Edna Mae, I have got [illegible] stay in a few days [illegible]. I just can hardly do it [illegible] of leaving my darling. You can write to me a loving letter. Your dearest friend, A [illegible].

"PS: Don't tell me that you love me until you do. I don't like that way that you [done?] at the picnic but I will excuse you. I don't think you knew."

Suspicious Bags...

Imgur | asianwreck

"My husband and I found a Crown Royal bag in the rafters of the basement that previous tenants had left behind. As soon as I saw it I yelled 'Open it! Open it! It's money or drugs!' It was not money or drugs. It was a purple dildo and some lube." — buzzlesmuzzle

The couple sensibly did not use any of the objects that they found, they instead threw them all on a bonfire in the back yard.

Secret Basement Entrance

Taylor Ann Wright | Unsplash

"Moved into an old apartment in a college town. It had previously been a fraternity or sorority house all through the 80s. I was at an all greek party alumni and met an older guy who found out I lived in his old frat house. He immediately asked if we ever partied in the basement. I told him we didn't have basement access from inside, so no. He then had me follow him back to my house and showed me a false wall next to the bathroom that led down into the basement.

"Not gonna lie, it kinda freaked me out. The basement door outside had a broken lock, so anyone could get down there. The false wall was hard to open from the house side, but really easy to push open from the basement. Anybody could have gone down there and come up into my apartment." — Archie__the__Owl

Strange Trophies

Unsplash | Giorgio Trovato

"Moved into a townhouse and noticed an attic hatch on the second floor (not the kind that is meant to be used often). Being curious, my roommates and I brought a ladder up and decided to check it out. Mostly just insulation, except there was a cardboard box! We never would have guessed what was in the box.

"Bowling trophies from the 70s.

"Weirdly, they were all loosened, as in the nut holding them together had been loosened, but they weren't fully disassembled. My friend says that was a common hiding place for drugs back in the day, so I guess we found someone's bowling trophy stash hiding spot." — Demeja

Bottles Of Holy Water

Unsplash | chris liu

"Bottle of holy water in the linen closet. Never took it out incase there was some bad juju going on with that closet. Left it for the next owner too." — Ryanm715

I like that these people have seen enough horror movies to think that it's not worth tampering with something when you don't need to. Hopefully the next owners were just as wise!

The Worst Cleaning Job Of All

Unsplash | Oliver Hale

"I used to clean government subsidized apartments after a tenant had been kicked out. Here is a short list of things I found:

"A man's meth rotten front teeth that he was keeping in the linen closet.

"A penis pump

"Court appearance paperwork

"So. Much. Lube.(in EVERY aparment)

"Lastly, one former tenant was so angry about being evicted that she closed all the windows, turned the heat up (it was August in UT) and shoved raw chicken in the grate on the back of a refrigerator. We got called in to clean up about a week later. Unfortunately it took us wayyy too long to find the source of the stench. We were gagging the entire time." — ZoeyandBean

Nuclear War Preparations

Unsplash | Dan Meyers

"A 1950/60s nuclear bomb survival kit. Complete with rice in a can and a pamphlet that instructed mothers not to let their radiated children inside if the were playing outside when the bomb went off. So amazing." — kknits

Those old school nuclear war adverts didn't mess around. Have you ever seen the advert where the little cartoon people tell you how you should drag your dead loved ones into nearby rooms? The UK government produced it years ago, truly terrifying.

Horrifying Messages Scrawled On Walls

Unsplash | Manmohan PM

"My parents had bought a new house, strange story about it; the previous owner had some... Issues, some of the neighbours said he had mental problems and others just said he was a drunk... He tried to kill himself in the basement of the house by starting a fire, nothing came of it besides some smoke smell in the basement but that's just a little backstory.

"I went up there right after they got the keys and they were showing me around, we were standing in the upstairs of the house and there's a large window up there, the sun was coming through it and I could see the words 'kill everyone' smudged on the glass. Needless to say I have not spent the night there." — Mk6rDoc

Yep, there's no way I'd be staying in there, that's for sure!

An... Unusual Fetish To Say The Least

Unsplash | Charles Deluvio

"Used condoms in a bag. A noose in the basement hanging from the rafters. A bunch of naked pics of this 500 lb dude with food all over him." — AngelFox1

He must have been really hungry to cover himself in food like th... wait, wait a second, you don't think it was a sexual thing do you? Oh... dear.

Personal Information In A Binder

Unsplash | Sear Greyson

"This one dude (previous tenant) was either a pharmacist or a really upscale drug dealer. He had a binder full of people's names; addresses; and medications to deliver.

"It was creepy, and I suggested to my roommate that we just burn it. She just threw it out instead." — cerberus6320

I would definitely have landed on the side of burning it, I wouldn't like to think that there was a binder of my personal information lurking around after all.

Signed Presidential Pictures

Unsplash | Kelly Sikkema

"I was going through a separation and I rented a dumpy old house and was super depressed about it. On the first day, I opened a closet and found a framed, signed photo of Jimmy Carter. I didn't have anything else to hang on the wall, so up ol' Jimmy went. That house ended up being my kids and my favorite house. We had so much fun there, and we were so happy. I eventually remarried and we moved to a house in the same neighborhood. We're still very happy in our beautiful new house, but Jimmy Carter still watches over us here." — friedokra7788

What a lovely, wholesome story amidst so many tales of sex toys, lube, pornography, and drugs!

Leaving An Old Dog Behind

Unsplash | Timothy Eberly

"The previous owner left their 10 year old dog name sugar on the small farm my parents bought. They said she was old and came with the house since she was of no use to them. Sugar lived the last three years of her life as a pampered indoor princess. She lived outside tied up her entire life and we were so grateful to give her a great last few years of life." — faithnoelt

What a wonderful gift to give that dog in her final years. I would relish the opportunity to give a dog such as Sugar a nice place to spend her final years!

Finding A Plethora Of House Keys

Unsplash | Samantha Lam

"When I bought my first car, it had a weird rattling noise that would come and go. One day decided to check on the spare tire beneath the trunk and found upwards of 40 house keys, all loose, all different. Thinking the previous owner murdered a janitor." — acoustic11

That is a much more positive theory than the idea that the owner of the car murdered 40 individual people!

Abandoned Animals

Unsplash | Unmesh

"Not me but my mom is an apartment manager. After someone moves out, you have to walk the unit looking for items and I usually help. Some people leave everything but a bag of clothes. But it never fails to put a smile on my face when I walk into the bedroom and find a stripper pole. I have found a countless number of them. Other thing is a whole fish tank with fish in it. Some guy left a bird. Another left a cat. We rehome or keep them. The fish are in my moms office, the bird flew away and we still have the cat. Good times". — fryboy31

I do not know how people could leave behind pets when moving home, that is a new level of cruel. Thank goodness these people took care of them.

Loaded Weaponry

Unsplash | Jens Lelie

"I was helping my former in-laws move into their new house and found a loaded handgun on the top shelf of the bedroom closet. Looked like it had been there for a long time, the round in the chamber was stuck and took some effort to remove. I'm sure glad I found it and not one of my kids." — OuterSpaceHobo

Do you have any stories of finding weird things in houses you had recently moved into? Let me know your strangest stories in the comments below!