Shocking Items Left Behind by Previous Tenants

Shannon Quinn - January 29, 2023

Photo: Credit: Reddit

It’s not uncommon for people to discover something in their new apartment or house that was left behind by previous tenants. Sometimes, it can be something as simple as trash that needs to be thrown away. Other times, these discoveries are truly crazy. So crazy, in fact, that these people felt the need to share their true stories online for the world to know what they discovered.

A Serial Killer’s Business Card

For those of you who don’t know who John Wayne Gacy is, he is famous for being a serial killer who dressed up like a clown before murdering his victims. Back in 1971, he started his own construction company called PDM Contractors in Norwood Park, IL. So imagine the surprise watchperson1 must have felt when he went through his grandparent’s paperwork to find a business card from the famous serial killer. They went ahead and posted the picture on the WTF subreddit. Honestly, they could probably put this on eBay and some True Crime fan would probably pay a lot of money to have this.

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Winning Lottery Tickets in the Closet

Sometimes, people choose to buy a house as-is, even if it still has belongings left over from the previous owner. A redditor called Impulse618 wrote that their uncle bought a house that was owned by an old woman who passed away. She left a lot of things behind in the house that her family never cleaned up, like Christmas decorations and her kitchen cutlery. But the most shocking thing he discovered was a huge trash bag filled to the brim with lottery scratch-off tickets. Every single one of them was a winner, and it added up to $12,000! They took them to a convenience store to try to cash out on the winnings. Unfortunately, though, it was far past the payout date, and they were worthless. It’s such a shame that this woman never cashed in her lottery tickets before she passed away.

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Dentures Inside of the Wall of the House

Throughout human history, people will find hiding spaces for their beloved objects. And walls provide an interesting hide away for these items. When my parents were doing construction on their home, they found toys and pins under the floorboards that kids must have hidden under a loose board. And in the future, if they ever break down one particular wall in our family room, they’re going to find a Beanie Babie I accidentally tossed in-between the wall. But on this post on the WTF subreddit, someone posted a picture of a jar with dentures inside that someone left behind inside their wall. This feels totally intentional, like someone decided to put something as creepy as possible into the wall, knowing that it would be discovered someday in the future.

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Bones in the Basement

Finding bones in the basement sounds like everyone’s worst nightmare. And in the image above, you can see how someone discovered bones in the crawl space under their house. Hopefully these aren’t human bones! But it’s most likely some kind of animal. This reminds me of an episode from Fixer Upper: The Castle. Chip and Joanna Gaines also found bones in their basement, but there is a perfectly rational explanation. Their basement was once used to prepare meat, so there were cow bones left behind. People don’t typically do that nowadays. They leave it up to the butcher. But if the previous homeowner was a hunter, it’s possible they belong to a deer or something similar.

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Creepy and Obsessive Notes About Their Neighbors

Almost everyone has dealt with nosy neighbors at some point in their life. This is especially common if the neighbor is retired with nothing better to do. But in this photo above, you can see how someone found notebooks left behind by the previous tenant. All of the notebooks are filled with notes about their neighbors. These notes went on for years! If you zoom in on the notes to try to read them, a lot of it is recording the sounds they could hear the neighbors making. It’s safe to assume they were in an apartment. But most of it is very normal, like doors closing when they come home from work, laughter, a porch light going on, what type of car they drove, etc. This person most likely had a mental illness that made them paranoid, and they felt that it was necessary to monitor their neighbor’s movements.

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Mannequins in the Attic

In this post on Reddit, someone was checking out a house they were thinking about buying. They stumbled upon a large number of mannequins that the previous owner left behind… Including one very creepy baby mannequin. These look a lot older, because they still have faces painted on them, which was more common back in the 1980’s and 90’s. Whoever owns this house clearly used to own a clothing store at some point. Or, they found a store that was going out of business and decided to buy several mannequins “just because”. I actually have a mannequin in my attic too, because I used to sell clothes on eBay. So it’s not as creepy as it may seem.

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A Stain From a Dead Body

This next post is everyone’s worst nightmare, especially if they believe in haunted houses. It’s not uncommon for older people to die in their own homes, though. According to the CDC, 31.4% of people die at home. But in this case, when their body fell, they bled out and left a stain on the wooden floor. The caption for this photo says, “My friend just bought a new house and showed me where the ex owner was found.” Unfortunately for this person, the only way he can fix this is to completely replace the floorboards. Or, he can keep a carpet on top of it and just pretend like it’s not there.

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Tooth Light Switch

Almost everyone in America grew up hearing the story of the Tooth Fairy. As the story goes, when you lose a baby tooth, you can put it under your pillow at night. The next morning, the tooth fairy will leave behind some money, and the tooth disappears. Most parents will just throw the teeth away, while others hold onto them in a memory box of some kind. But in this post on Reddit, someone discovered a very unique way to preserve baby teeth. They wrote, “A friend who is a realtor turned on the light switch for clients when viewing a house and almost ran out of the house”. Yikes. You would think that the person selling the house would have known that this is not something you want to leave behind for potential buyers to find. A new light switch plate would only cost $1 at Home Depot.

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Fish in a Jar

In this next story from Kayahx Reddit, someone discovered some very creepy vials of tiny fish buried in their backyard. They live near a college, so they’re theorizing that maybe this was just leftover from the person’s biology class. And the fish were fully intact, as if the liquid was preserving their bodies for a very long time. Someone in the comments responded that maybe this could have been a funeral for someone’s pet fish. It’s very common to bury pets in the backyard, too. So good luck to landscapers who uncover troves of pet remains.

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Dirty Trophies

When people get older, they have a hard time taking care of themselves. And in the case of this story from a user called Lonelycub, they found something very gross and sad left behind in a house. He said “Helped my friend clean out his deceased uncle’s house. This is what 30 years of dust, cobwebs, and nicotine buildup look like.” It’s unclear how he knows the exact length of time the uncle wasn’t cleaning up after himself. Maybe this was the amount of time he lived without his wife being alive. If anything, this is just a reminder to check in on your elderly loved ones, and maybe offer to help clean up their house so they don’t end up living like this.

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Straight Out of a Horror Movie

On this Reddit post, the caption for this photo simply says, “The former homeowners forgot someone…” One of the top comments says, “They didn’t forget, they moved because of that thing.” It’s so creepy, it’s hard believing that this is real, or maybe that someone left this behind as a prank. But after a quick Google search, it showed that this is an animatronic Halloween decoration that costs $200. So it’s meant to be creepy. And since it’s so expensive, they most likely did not mean to leave it behind. The new owners could actually sell that on Facebook Marketplace or eBay and be happy to have some extra cash.

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A Hidden Sim Card Reeks of Mystery

This image was posted on Reddit with the caption, “Just moved into a new apartment and happened upon what I thought was a piece of painted over tape stuck to a bookshelf. Peeled it up to find it was concealing a mystery.” And the crowd goes wild. This post became incredibly popular with people wondering what was contained on the mystery Sim card. Later, the OP posted an update, along with several images of him trying out the Sim card in a phone. It was anticlimactic, because there was nothing to be found. But the Sim card is just for activating service. It wouldn’t hold any old text messages or anything like that. So I don’t know what they expected would happen. The theory that makes the most sense is that maybe the previous tenant was cheating, and they used a different phone number to contact their lover.

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Dusty Cat Toys

Cat owners will already be familiar with the fact that their toys end up everywhere. They mostly end up underneath furniture, and only show up later when you’re moving things around to clean. So it’s not surprising that a user named tugeracesullivan discovered more cat toys when they moved into a new apartment. They wrote that there is space under their kitchen cabinets, and their cat was hiding under there when they first moved in. Over the next few days, there was a mysterious increase in dusty cat toys. Turns out that the cat was able to drag all of the previous tenants toys out from under the cabinets to play with.

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The Tombstone of a Baby

This photograph is sad, and a bit strange. The caption says, “My apartment in college had a tombstone of a baby in the basement. Landlord said it was there when he bought the building and he didn’t feel right moving it.” I tried to search for this on Google, and it’s more common than you might think. There are even some churches that have graves in their basement. On top of that, someone in the comments said that they did some research on genealogy databases and found out that the baby is actually buried in a regular cemetery. They theorized that maybe the family just replaced the headstone, and kept the old one in the basement.

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You Better Not Shout, Better Not Cry…

Imagine walking through a basement and you encounter this thing. How horrifying. The original poster wrote, “Family bought a house to flip a few years ago. It was built on the basement of a Victorian Era home that was demolished. There was a 7 foot tall headless Santa in the basement along with cat skeletons.” That’s so creepy! And it’s very sad that they cat skeletons ended up in the basement, instead of buried in the backyard. I would be very upset to find any of this stuff if I bought a house. It probably went straight out to the curb for trash pickup.

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Skin From a 1920’s Tattoo Removal

I have so many questions about this photograph. The caption says, “Found this in my friend’s old house. Actual tattoo removed from man’s arm in 1926, placed on a sheet of cotton and cataloged in an envelope” First of all, was this tattoo removed when the man was still alive? Or was this taken off by a curious undertaker who had a creepy habit of collecting dead people’s skin? After doing some research, it revealed that back in the 1920’s, people did, in fact, have their skin surgically removed while they were alive. Don’t look up the pictures if you’re squeamish. As you can imagine, the disfigurement it caused looks worse than just keeping the tattoo.

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The Secret Monopoly Game

Uncovering a secret handmade Monopoly game hidden in a radiator, a family discovers the resourcefulness and creativity of the previous occupants. This story came from a deleted user on Reddit. They wrote that in 1976, their family moved into an apartment. He was 10 years old at the time, and the family had just moved to Canada. The family was cleaning his new bedroom before painting it. So they removed the radiator cover to clean. Underneath the cover was a completely handmade Monopoly game. Later, he found out that the room had been shared by two brothers. Their parents were very strict, and refused to let them play boardgames. So they secretly made their own game and hid it in the radiator.

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Collectables Worth a Small Fortune

Most people wish they could stumble upon valuable collectables in their attic. So this story from suitology is literally a dream come true. They wrote that their dad found a first edition book from Benjamin Franklin. The previous owner of the house was a school principal who was a book collector. Sadly, he killed himself in retirement, and left behind a lot of his belongings in the crawlspace. He also found an autographed baseball hat, Playboy magazines, a huge jug full of pennies, a handgun, a sword, and even more valuable books. I wonder if this guy’s dad sold any of the books. After a quick Google search, first edition Benjamin Franklin books can go anywhere from $50 to $1,000 depending on which one they found.

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Grandma’s Secret Hobby

Out of context, this photograph seems very creepy. The caption says, “My friend found a box of teeth while cleaning out his grandma’s house” As a true crime junkie, my first thought was that grandma was a serial killer. However, the comments are filled with dentists saying that every dental student has a box of teeth like this. They need real teeth to practice with. The original poster never mentioned if the grandmother or her husband was a dentist, but that would make a lot of sense. If not, though, then she has a very creepy collection. And its would be horrifying to find this in a house you just moved into. Out of curiosity, we searched for human teeth on eBay, and there are plenty of listings available for people who want to buy them.

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Spying on His Wife’s Phone Calls

Trust is essential in a healthy relationship. So I can only imagine how toxic this one must have been. The caption for this photo says, “Today we found all of this stuff in an old power box in my house. It turns out the previous owner tapped the phone line to listen to his wife’s calls. All of the cassettes are filled with phone conversations called from my house’s landline approximately 20 years ago.” Clearly, this guy didn’t trust his wife, and probably suspected that she was cheating on him. I wonder if this couple ever ended up getting a divorce, or if the husband just continued to spy on his wife their entire marriage.

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Skeleton in the Wall

It’s actually very common for rats and mice to get inside of people’s walls. So as shocking as this photo is, it’s not very surprising. The caption says, “Remodeling my house. Found this guy inside my wall. Just can’t figure out how it died.” In the comment section, someone joked that the rat looks like it was doing pullups and then suddenly died of a heart attack. My theory is that maybe it was too fat to squeeze itself through. Or maybe it got electrocuted on one of the wires. Who knows. But that must have smelled terrible for the previous tenants. I’ve smelled that before, and it’s something you never forget. Hopefully it never happens for this person again.

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A Free Playstation One With Games

This story has a surprise celebrity appearance. A user called Lockshala wrote, “As a kid, my parents moved into a former Minnesota Vikings lineman’s house and he left a PS1 with a bunch of games. Great dude.” How lucky is that? As a kid, it would be so exciting to get a free Playstation and games from a famous football player. If they were moving into a football player’s former home, it was probably a mansion. So maybe that family could already afford video games. But still, what a treasure for that kid to hang on to!

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Many, Many Bottles of Urine

Sometimes, people are just beyond lazy. The caption of this photo says, “Came home to find my housemate has been evicted for not paying his rent and we found over 50 bottles of pi*s his room.” Okay… Having money trouble is one thing. But being so lazy that you can’t even walk over to the bathroom is another. Some guys keep urine bottles if they’re truck drivers, and some need one by their bed post-surgery. But to leave them behind for someone else to clean up is one of the most disgusting things you could find.

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A Vintage Kidnapping Case

A user named alisleaves wrote, “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 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 I’m not sure I want to bring it up.” This is a bit confusing. Was the previous owner the one who was kidnapped, or a suspect in the case? Either way, it’s very creepy, especially since the neighbor is still alive.

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The False Wall in the Frat House

This next story comes from a Redditor called Archie__the__Owl. “Moved into an old apartment in a college town. It had previously been a fraternity house all through the 1980s. 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. Anybody could have gone down there and come up into my apartment.”

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Bone Under the House

Here is yet another very creepy photograph of a bone found in a basement. The caption said, “Found this under my house tonight… not sure if I should be concerned.” Thankfully, Reddit is full of all kinds of people. Someone in the comments wrote that it is definitely an animal bone, since it would be too small to fit in a human- even if they were a child. That’s good to know. Just like the previous photo of the bones in the basement, someone was probably butchering an animal and was too lazy to throw the bones away. Now, years later, it’s freaking the new tenants out.

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An SNL Script

Any comedy fan would be jealous of this next story. Amesly wrote, “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.” So many of the stories of things left behind are gross, but this is actually very cool, and possibly valuable. He could sell it on eBay. But if it were me, I would hold onto this forever.

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Macaulay Culkin

So far on this list, we talked about things left behind by previous tenants. But this story is about someone who purposely left something for future people. YouIn10Years wrote, “Speaking as the previous tenant- I left a locket containing Macaulay Culkin’s photo in the cupboard for the sheer purpose of making the next tenant happy or concerned.” If I found this locket, I would cherish it forever. It’s just so funny, I would keep it and tell everyone about it. Everyone had a celebrity crush growing up. So it’s totally relatable, and guaranteed to make someone smile. It’s a great thing to leave behind on purpose.

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Shower Demo

This next photo’s caption is a hilarious coincidence. They wrote, “Found a shower during the demo to put in a shower.” Wow. I wonder if this means that the plumbing is still intact. Maybe they could save some money on the installation by reusing what’s already there. But it could be completely useless, so it’s possible that they had to completely tear out everything that was left behind. Either way, that’s a crazy coincidence, and a story they’re probably going to tell their friends and family for the rest of their lives. In the comments, someone theorized that maybe it’s illegal to put a shower in the basement where they live. So they closed it up before selling the house.

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A Locked Box in the Attic

Who doesn’t love a good story about a locked treasure chest? A Redditor called humanscantpollinate wrote that their partner was helping a 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- the 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. Some of the clippings are absolutely surreal. Back then, without the Internet, the newspaper was the closest thing people had to figuring out what was going on during the war. And if they had a loved one fighting overseas. Wanting to keep all of the clippings forever is understandable.

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The Yellow Gym Bag

Earlier on this list, we had a story where someone assumed that they would find drugs. But in this story by TaloneyeMan, that’s literally what happened. He rented out his house for two years while he went overseas. His tenants were a nice couple in their 40’s. The husband was a designer, and the wife was a teacher. Everything went smoothly. They always paid their rent on time, and left the house spotless. About a month after moving back in, he went up in the attic and found a yellow gym bag. Inside were seven one-pound ziplock bags of high quality marijuana. Keep in mind- this was back in the 1980’s. So weed was illegal everywhere in the US back then. He reached out to his tenants, and they quickly denied it being theirs. So he asked for help from a friend to sell it, and ended up making a huge profit.

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It Was a Test, and She Passed

Addiction is a horrible thing. It can completely ruin someone’s life, and it’s so hard for people to remain sober, even after getting treatment. So this next story from Syndi- is so inspirational. She wrote that her mom had just completed drug court when she was 11 years old. They were moving into a new studio apartment. One day, she climbed the kitchen counter and reached into the top shelf. The previous owner left behind a huge bag of crystal meth. Instead of using it or selling it on the street for $200, the mom decided to flush it down the toilet. Such a proud moment for the both of them.

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The Impossibly Large Deer Painting

This next story from coralraerose is a bit of a head scratcher. They found a massive painting of a meadow with a deer in an ornate frame in their attic. There was only one way into the attic, neither were big enough to get the painting in or out. Even more weird, attics were not standard in their subdivision. The previous owners walled in the rafters, put the portrait up there and then made the only door too small to get the portrait out. Needless to say they left it there for the next owners to find. The only rational explanation could be that the person painted and assembled the painting in the attic as a studio space, and they just couldn’t get out.

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Secret Love Letter

A Reddit user called greywolf248 posted that he found a small little cubby formed in the floor joists of the basement in his house. In this little hiding place, there was a receipt for some engine repair, a $12 gift certificate to a local jewelers, and a two page letter written by a man named Mark who was training in a Naval base in California back in 1979. The letter is way too long to copy, but you can read the entire thing here. Long story short, this guy talks a lot about getting high with his friends, the difficulty of his work, and how much he misses his girlfriend.

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Opals

So many people imagine finding treasure in a new home, and that’s exactly what happened to liblibpizzapizza. They wrote, “Former tenants 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.” There are some opal lots selling for just $30. So who knows if this is really worth thousands of dollars or not. But if it is, hopefully this person got to sell it and make a profit. As the saying goes, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. Literally.

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A Horse Skeleton

Last but not least is this story from vaseline_my_wene. They wrote, “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.”

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