I can't be alone here. What unusual things have you come across hidden in wall, attics etc?


I once, tucked away in an attic, found a hollowed out African Elephant's Foot. The work was obviously done by a taxidermist.
The homeowner had lived there 20 years, and never knew it was up there.

Another time, during the demo of a wall, I found an RG 22 (read cheap) revolver wrapped up in a shop rag. The frame was made of diecast zinc, and the cylinder to barrel gap was so big that it sprayed as much lead out of it as at the target.

I once came across a very angry possum under the floor of a house once, I choked him with some PVC sheathed cable.

You guys have me beat ...

In commercial / industrial locations, I often find a trail of empty whiskey bottles, or (in the pre-internet days) collections of pornography.

In residential locations, there have been the various animal traces. The animals themselves have invariably taken one curious whiff of the intruder (me) and scurried away; the exception being wasps. To be fair, our "possum" over here is somewhat different from the Kiwi version. (Ours is technically called an Opossum).

One house disposed of their old carpet by laying it in their crawl space- and using the area as a play room for their little kids.

I have one industrial site that is infested with copperheads - a poisonous snake, comparable to the old-world asp.

All I find seems to fit into three categories:
1) Trash left by previous tradesmen;
2) Amateur electrical work; and,
3) Evidence of illegal drug use.

Snake in a pool panel; fried cat in 4160 switchgear; really fried & stinky ground hog in pad mount xfr.

Others were various old cans & bottles in comm demo jobs, & the occasional old newspapers.

Wasps, hornets, & bees in a lot of light poles and site lights.

A few homeless people in a vacant supermarket; they were the scareiest!!

Fried rattlesnake in a fire pump motor, live king snake in a well house, countless snake skins in attics, under buildings,and even one in a ceiling fan motor. We are always finding old tools and bits of iron every time we do any excavation. Of course wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets are real common here in Georgia. We have recovered at least 3 metric tons of trash left by other trades, old bottles, and once a Life Magazine dated 1956.

I didn't know critters in equipment counted. We always find snakes, tree frogs and ants, causing faults. The wasps are a pain (in pick your appendage) but they usually don't break anything.

How bout a dead body? Me and this kid that was helping me one year did....

What about creative insulation? When the floor was replaced in the upstairs apartment I thought I saw something sticking out underneath the wooden wainscotting by the window. Tugged on it and out came more or less clean (dusty of course) stockings and newspapers from the 1930s! I pulled one piece of newsprint to find a date and left everything else.

UF cable direct buried in shot rock. Spliced with wire nuts, mastic and lots of electrical tape

6/3 Romex spliced with each wire spliced just with a split bolt, each in its own j-box

Plugged in 6/3 stove pigtail soldered and wrapped in electrical tape feeding surface mount recepts fed with zip cord. Oh, still using the 50 amp breaker...

In the '70s we pulled the drywall off of one side of a long wall in an office building to install electrical and plumbing.

Someone had neatly written in foot tall letters with spray paint "10 Downing St" on the inside the remaining drywall on the other side, one letter in each stud bay.

10 Downing Street is the address of the Prime Minister of the UK.

I still haven't figured that one out.

electure...

That address was widely used in British entertainment -- as in the BBC and PBS broadcasts.

It was a long running series -- in the 1970's...

Thanks Tesla!

I thought I would go the rest of my life without knowing the answer.

We did find a home made toy airplane made of wood with moth eaten skin stretched across the wings in a wall once, along with a treasure map. Also found an old silver dollar wedged in between some roof planks.

1st year in business I found around $35,000.00 in cash in a drop ceiling of a basement. we were running a line for a dryer for the new home owner, a relocated cop from LA. Totally freaked me and the helper out. The money was in a shoe box, coffee can, and envelope, unsorted 20's through 100's. put it all back, didn't even take a cent for coffee and donuts. went back with a big friend that night to show the customer what we found. we were asked to leave. later i heard that supposedly the money along with 15k more was put there by the previous owner for Y2K and then forgotten. YEAH FREAKIN RIGHT. we never got anything for doing the right thing, although i was not expecting it, but lunch would have been nice

In a similar topic thread years ago here, someone said that they found a Wiggy in a wall.

That was his 401-K.

I once found and adult female toy (dil..) above a drop ceiling in a house. When he wasn't looking, I stuck it in my helpers lunch box. :)The house was empty and the owners moved out.

And what did your helper say or do??

John,

Well when we sat down for lunch that day, you should have seen the look on his face. Of course, I didn't have much time to gloat about it. He threw it at me and I was running an trying to duck from the missile he hurled at me.

If I have to go in someone's attic I usually come down with a serious look on my face and say "Wow! What's that big bag of money doing up there?" Fun to watch their eyes go big as saucers followed by " REALLY?" Always ends in a good laugh.

In my experience, the typical 'find' would be a bong stuck somewhere in the un-energized switchgear.

The last one I discovered must have been crafted by a plumber... as its copper and solder craftsmanship was of a high art.

The other odd thing that I once ran into on a job was a code compliant installation. Now that was odd.