It does not matter if it is an old place or artifact. There is always something about places and spaces that are not of this day that generally hold a lot of allure leaving us in amazement and wonder. We tend to think about the mystery behind its existence. This Reddit homeowner was just renovating his basement but ended up discovering and solving a decades-long mystery!
As it is a very common habit for Reddit homeowners, this particular user's story is something that every person would enjoy reading through. Many Reddit users have cited their experiences about their interesting discoveries in their houses. Be it cool hidden rooms in houses, secret passages in homes, or hidden passageways, they always strike out when it comes to finding secret rooms in houses.
This Reddit user found this house that was built in the 1940's fascinating. His wife and he agreed that it would make a nice home. However, their only knowledge about the property consisted of the fact that it had had multiple owners through the years. The couple could not have imagined in a million years that their discovery could have been there inside their basement all along.
Since they couldn't afford to renovate the whole basement, they decided that they would work with whatever they had. Consequently, they took up the task to clean it up themselves and make it appear as good as possible. While the cleaning was underway, they were shocked to learn that there was something present there the whole time...something shocking...
As they were cleaning the basement, the couple was left startled as they found strange writings and drawings on the wall. They were not of those of children though. Drawings and markings in themselves are not very dangerous, but the very nature of these drawings emitted an ominous feeling. What could be making them feel this strange sensation?
The walls had multiple doodles of what looks like the Swastikas. These had been scratched into its surface. To them, it seemed that the previous owners might have been a Nazi supporter as the house was built in the 1940s, at the precipice of the Second World War. But the menacing drawings meant little to the couple as there were other even more astounding discoveries.
The guy who owns this place is someone who enjoys doing things himself. “I am a 35 years old do-it-yourselfer, so I had remodeled everything on the first and second floors,” he revealed. A complete home renovation by proper house remodeling companies costs inordinate amounts of money, so he took it upon himself to do it. In fact, he is a skilled handyman.
As they went on with the goal of revamping the basement, the began working on the ceiling. But, the task didn't turn up to be that simple as they had expected. “There was a good 1/4 inch of dust on the ceiling. We put up plastic to keep the dust out of the rest of the house, then we exposed and patched the air returns first,” the Reddit homeowner stated.
If you have already guessed that the couple found something else while they were working on this project, you are absolutely right. The task at hand was going all well and good when they came across another more startling discovery. During the taxing task of cleaning, they discovered an item hidden in a unique hiding spot. What could this be then?
While the couple was busy working, in one of the basement's corners they found the mysterious suitcase type box hidden next to a pipe in the ceiling. For a suitcase to be placed there, anyone would get incredibly curious, right? The box had been concealed away in such a manner, that only the person who placed it there would have known about its location.
When the box was discovered by the couple, they became increasingly intrigued. There was a mix of dread and restlessness that took over the couple. Being as the house was built in the 40s and having gone through multiple owners, the identity of the original owner could've been anyone. But more urgent was the question, what was inside the suitcase type box?
When they finally took the suitcase out from its hiding place, they discovered that it was a vintage retro suitcase. The couple used a toy banana for scale. It was quite a thick suitcase in fact. “We took the box outside. It had something inside, but nothing heavy like coins or gold bars. I thought I might get lucky, though,” one of the owners recollected.
From that state that the house was in, the pair were expecting some antiques inside the light blue vintage suitcase. “We were starting to guess a lot at this point. My wife thought we would find some old recipes, I thought we might discover some vintage sports cards", the owner confessed, speaking about how much of a guessing game they played during the discovery.
Anyone would be conflicted to actually open up a mysterious suitcase, right? Even this couple spent some time deliberating. The two then decided to open the box themselves. It was a lightweight, small hardshell suitcase which didn't require much effort to lift. Despite its paltry weight, it did not seem empty. They could immediately tell that something was definitely kept inside.
After speculating about the contents of the vintage luggage holder for the longest time, the couple finally decided to bring an end to their curiosity by deciding to open it. But as the saying goes, 'curiosity killed the cat,' and that was seemingly the case for this couple. If you were in their shoes, would you be able to shake off your curiosity?
They made an underwhelming discovery after finally opening it. But, their spirit steeply dropped when they noticed that the box wasn't that special as they had expected. Evidently, it contained nothing apart from an old newspaper, which unluckily for them, was also not that special. Why would anyone want to store a newspaper inside a suitcase in such a place like this?
They started to ponder the reasons why someone would even think about putting this in a secretive place. The only possible reason that they could think of finding the newspaper in that vintage luggage holder was, that it might have been used in order to protect and preserve something of more valuable and significant nature. Well, was it?
They proceeded on to inspecting the newspaper carefully. Consequently, taking a closer look, they found out that the newspaper was dated March 25, 1951. Seeing this, they deduced that the vintage retro suitcase might have been concealed by the original owner himself. “The date on the newspaper must be near the time the box was hidden,” the owners revealed.
The couple was left surprised when they suddenly discovered an unusual package wrapped in something which seemed to them as wax paper. It looked very peculiar, leaving them to believe that it was something illegal. Their curiosity grew rapidly when they found three small packages on ripping the wax paper apart as quickly as they could.
Finally, there was a little smile on their faces as the secretive placement of the suitcase finally made some sense. The couple when found 20, 50 and 100-dollar-bills from inside this strange package. Fortunately, for them, they were in perfect condition. The series of startling discoveries in that short amount of time left the couple confused.
The homeowners had never come across such a bizarre experience in this house till date. It struck them that someone might be playing a cruel prank on them. They fervently started looking for hidden cameras in their home. “We were freaking out. This doesn’t happen to us! What do we do? Where are the cameras?", they admitted.
One of the packets in the suitcase had a stack of $20. – “We didn’t get a picture opening each package, our excitement overwhelmed us, we spent hours making an inventory of everything we found in the box. We decided that we needed to have the special bills appraised and talk to a lawyer about how to proceed”, the couple stated.
These money bills were dated to be from 1928-1934. They felt like being on top of the world when they ended up having $23,000 dollars. “This was a wild ride for us. We are boring people and have been dumping our extra money to pay off our mortgage and that is where this money will go too,” the couple confessed. Was this the whole mystery?
The couple could not believe their luck. It was as if they had done something great in the past and now the good benefits from their previous efforts were rewarded. Not long after the initial discovery of all the money, which included fifty-dollar banknotes and a couple of rare $100 bills too, they were something else that shocked them even more.
After they found the suitcase with money inside, the couple went back to their usual daily errands. The excitement died down and the wife had gone to work and the man continued his work of remodeling the ceiling. It turned out to be a deja vu for the man when he found a second suitcase type box, identical to the first one. It was kept hidden like the previous one.
When the husband took the suitcase from another corner in the basement, he noticed that it was surprisingly identical to the first one. This was a light blue vintage suitcase. Keeping control on his overwhelming curiosity, the man decided to wait for his wife while continuing the work of tearing down his ceiling in the meantime.
“I sat and stared at it, and cleaned my precious for hours while waiting for my wife to get home,” the man explained. He could not wait to inform his wife about the new discovery that he made. Finally, when the wife came back home, it was time to reveal the contents of the second hardshell suitcase. They sat down together and excitedly tried opening the box.
Just like their previous discovery, the two of them found another newspaper from the same year - 1951. This was again used to cover the contents of the box as a barrier. As the couple was riding their luck, it doesn't seem that astonishing to tell that they found the second hardshell suitcase was filled up to the brim with $20 bills.
The couple wanted to be smart about this. So what did they do? They contacted an estate lawyer to know more about the details of the legal aspect. On further investigation, they found out that the original owner of the house had died in the 1960s and had no descendants. This basically translated to them having full ownership of the money they found.
“All the money is in the bank and will be paid toward our mortgage, minus taxes. We seriously had to make an appointment and sit there and watch them count it all out. It was great fun,” the couple expressed. It was indeed a good fortune to be able to discover suitcases full of money. They would definitely get to enjoy spending this money that they did not even have to earn.
The couple ultimately decided to sell these antique bills. They ended up with an unbelievable amount of $45,000 dollars. They believe everyone reaps what they sow: “We are generally good people. We try to help others when we can. Acts of kindness go a long way.” They were convinced that it was their good nature that led them here. Have you been of any help to anyone near you today?
Here is a list of unbelievable discoveries made unintentionally that might leave you to be a little more attentive to your surrounding. Prepare to get jealous and surprised...
A horrific finding took place at a Montreal house. At the basement ceiling, the owner discovered skeletons whole renovating. He contacted a coroner who was certain that these were bones from a body of a youngster. The bones were covered in newspapers from a 100 years back. The house was constructed in 1910 so it had been there since the time they moved here in 1978.
Even come across anything related to the famous "Fenn Treasure?" This is an American legend of sorts. It involves a fortune that Forest Fenn, an art dealer, buried $3 million worth of gold and jewels in the Rocky Mountains area. A couple renovated their kitchen that had a note with the combination. They later found a safe under their basement and when they used the code, it opened to reveal over $50,000 and a bottle of Bourbon from the year 1960. There were other supposed clues present in the safe for possibly much more treasure too.
When a hydropower watergate was under renovation in the Chinese province of Jiangxi, workers there made a startling discovery. A perfectly preserved Buddha statue was initially discovered by a village local. The water level fell 10 meters and the statue's features were revealed some more. It dates all the way back to the Ming Dynasty, or even the Yuan Dynasty. It was in a proper condition so the water probably prevented erosion.
A plumber from a Calgary-based plumbing company in Canada met with a fortune during a bathroom renovation. He could not believe his eyes when he saw a $50,000 (CAD) gold brick. They were honest workers so they gave it to the owners. The plumber revealed, "We were pumped when we found it, of course. Seeing the economy the way it is right now, it kind of sucks that we had to give it back. Obviously, we were going to do the right thing.”
There was a legal battle that took place over a $500,000 cash discovery by contractors. They were renovating a house in Arizona. The contractors believed that as finders, they should be rightful keepers. The owners believed that since this was in their property, it was rightfully theirs too. They were unlucky as the cash ended up going to the heirs of the person who hit it in the first place.
In a 170-year-old house located in Nova Scotia, Canada, a couple discovered actual treasure maps. They discovered these maps when they renovated their place. While installing the new flooring, they found several old maps that were actually made by James Imray. He is a cartographer who retired during the 19th century. Even though the maps may not actually lead to treasure, these maps are reportedly worth up to $6,000.
A family in Pennsylvania discovered something incredibly shocking when they tried installing insulation. Various animal carcasses came pouring out when they tore down their walls. These animals wrapped in newspaper fell out leaving the family stunned. These newspapers were from the 1930s, and the theory is that these animals had been used for witchcraft ritual.
In the United Kingdom, among the various old building, one in Applecross, Wester Ross from Scotland had something unbelievable. The building had existed for 200 years old and workers found an ancient skull while renovating it. Both the police and archaeology teams were called in to investigate. The skull was believed to be over 100 years old so it was impossible for the investigators to solve the mystery.
Does the Los Angeles' historic diner, "Clifton's Cafeteria" ring a bell? It is one of the oldest food chains and so obviously it comes with a lot of history. While renovating, the workers found neon lights behind the walls. Experts believe that it had been turned on for over 77 years straight. It made senses as the owner had actually paid $17,000 in electrical bills because of the light.
A Hungarian couple discovered top-secret Nazi documents hidden in their walls during their home renovation. They found over 6,000 Nazi documents from the Third Reich. There were listings of the actual count of Jews and designate homes which they could be moved into before shifting them to Budapest. This proved to be extremely helpful for researchers and historians to use as data.
If you discovered an unexploded hand grenade in your home, how frightened would you feel? When a son and mom cleaned out the grandma's garage, they found a hand grenade. The incident happened in Sydney, where the militants had to come to the rescue. It was probably owned by the grandfather who took part in the World War 2.
What if you discovered an actual mosque in your house? Do you think this is even possible? This unimaginable incident took place in Palermo, Italy. Owners of an apartment decided to break down the walls for renovation. It led them to discover Arabic writing on the wall. The Arabic writing was done in amazing gold and silver on all four walls. They called in an expert historian who told them that it had been used as a mosque during the time of crusades.