For many people, buying up the contents of storage units is one of the riskiest and, therefore, thrilling ways of making a living. You never know what you’re going to find inside a unit that someone’s neglected to make payments on – is that piece of paper that’s been scribbled on a child’s drawing or a long-lost Picasso sketch? It’s a minefield, but that big payoff could make years of struggle worth it.
However, even though massive storage unit finds have been documented in the past, there have been a much greater number of stories about people who found things they weren’t expecting and would probably rather not have come across in storage units they’ve acquired. Because many owners simply rent out space and don’t monitor what their tenants are storing, pretty much anything goes. Here are three of the most notorious storage unit finds of recent years.
Grandma
It’s pretty heartless to keep the remains of a relative in a storage unit, but that’s exactly what some people have done – urns containing human ashes have been found in a number of storage units, but the winner of this grisly prize has to go to the family who owned a storage unit in Florida and decided that it would be a good idea to keep their grandmother’s body in a casket for seventeen years! The body had been embalmed, so there was no smell to alert anyone to its presence, and it was only discovered when the family was informed that the storage unit’s contents would have to be put up for sale because they hadn’t paid the rent on it, to which they replied that the owner couldn’t possibly sell contents that included a human body…
Live explosives
It’s not particularly unusual to find weapons or ammunition stored in a unit, especially in America. Many people have them as a matter of course, and collectors will often have to move some of their pieces out of the house to create some space. However, the weapons are usually safe, whether they’ve been deactivated or unloaded. Spare a thought, then, for the man who bought a storage unit in Michigan only to discover that his job lot of goods included a live hand grenade. The local bomb squad was hastily called to deactivate it and make it safe, but there were probably a few nervous minutes before the unlucky owner realised it wasn’t about to explode in his face!
Serial killer kit
Unless you’re a fan (well, you’d have to be a massive fan) of Madonna, the name Robert Dewey Hoskins probably won’t make much of an impression on you. For those who don’t remember him, he was convicted of stalking the singer (and actress Halle berry) and sentenced to ten years in prison. However, he also had a storage locker in Long Beach, California, the contents of which were auctioned off in 2012. Inside were a creepy clown mask, a creepy headless baby doll, condoms, a number of butcher’s knives, a Bible and a ton of Madonna memorabilia – basically, it was creepy. Because there were no cases pending against him at the time, the police didn’t take any of it in as evidence. We can’t imagine the buyer kept it too long either…
Posted in: Storage Miscellany