When you’re replacing your porch, you don’t expect to find bowling balls hidden underneath – much less over 150! When doing a home renovation, David Olsen of Michigan found a whopping 158 bowling balls under his small cinderblock porch. The news story became a worldwide sensation, even Danish networks even picking it up.
The bowling balls dated all the way back to the ‘50s, so they were likely there when the house was built. Olsen started a Facebook group in an attempt to figure out what to do with all the bowling balls. Eventually, he decided to create a walkway and garden edging with all of his balls. The crazy thing is that he also found lightbulbs when he dug in other areas of his yard!
One woman on TikTok made a huge splash when she noticed an odd draft coming from behind her mirror. At everyone’s insistence, she removed the mirror and saw there was a massive hole. Upon further inspection, she found an entire (hopefully) abandoned apartment behind the mirror that was attached to her own!
Further inspection showed that the floors had been ripped out, piping exposed, no bathtub or toilet, and numerous other violations had made the apartment uninhabitable. Still, the apartment is a huge mystery to the tenant and anyone that followed her story in TikTok. So far, there hasn’t been an update. The wall should at least be closed up at the bare minimum…
One user on Reddit bought a house to find a piece of plywood and cinderblocks in the basement. At first, he didn’t really think about it. After he got settled, he decided to investigate and what he found sent shivers down his spine – a massive hole/well. The pictures don’t show a lot, but the owner later elaborated.
“It's 8 feet deep, 4 feet filled with water. There is nothing else down there.” Since the post, he filled the hole with stone. The homeowner in me says that he better get a sump pump (or get his looked at). The other part of me is terrified the little girl from the Ring is going to come crawling out of the hole any second.
This one isn’t buried treasure, but it’s as close as you’ll probably get in a New York apartment! While cleaning out one of his deceased family member’s attic, Colin Stair found a little Faberge figure. It was in its original box, wrapped in “ordinary fashion” and without “special security,” he told WNYT (a local Albany news channel).
He noticed it had little sapphires in the eyes, so he went to get it appraised. It turns out that the figure was worth quite the hefty sum! There were only 50 ever made, and the appraiser estimated it was worth $800,000. However, when it went to auction, it sold for more than $5 million after 15 minutes! Guess now Stair can get a super nice place in New York.
Could you imagine buying an old, dilapidated home only to later find an item that would pay for the house ten times over? Building contractor David Gonzalez bought a 1938 home for a little over $10,000. First, he started ripping out the walls, and there wasn't anything too surprising – a bunch of old newspapers and, oh! We take it back!
Gonzalez found an Action Comics No. 1, the first one where Superman debuted. It isn’t in great condition, but it’s still worth some dough. Because there’s only about 100 of the 250,000 around, Gonzales got a whopping $175,000 for the comic. A mint condition version of the same comic sold for $2.16 million in 2011.
While rummaging in a family home, a couple in North Wales found an entire kitchen in their basement. The kitchen had been blocked off since the Second World War and had an entire collection of items including a full cooking range, kettles, pots, pans, pastry cutters, antique fire extinguishers, and more.
The room was so big that it could easily seat 20 staff members. The kitchen itself dates back to the 1830s and had a layer of dust that made it clear that it hadn't been used in over 100 years. The couple's goal is to preserve the kitchen to link it to its Victorian past. That’ll definitely up the cost of the home when they sell.
Even if you aren’t an art connoisseur, chances are you know Vincent Van Gogh. He was one of the greatest artists that have ever lived, and one of his pieces is priceless (although they can easily go for millions when bought and sold). The painting, Sunset at Montmajour, was found in the attic of a Norwegian home.
At first, it was thought to be a fake, so the owner didn't bother doing anything with it. However, it was authenticated thanks to “extensive research into [its] style, technique, paint, canvas, the depiction, Van Gogh's letters and the provenance,” according to Van Gogh Museum Director Axel Ruger. Now, the painting is on display at the public Van Gogh Museum.
You never know what you may find when you start remodeling your home, so be careful. One Guatemalan man wanted to redo his kitchen but was halted when he started pulling back the plaster of his kitchen. Behind the stone, adobe, and wooden boards, he happened upon a 300-year-old Mayan mural.
The priceless piece of Guatemalan history showed a musical scene in the very room his family cooked. Due to the humidity of the area and home, the colors had faded quite a bit. Experts believe there could be similar murals in the area. The town has at least eight homes, so there's no telling what all they can find.
When Miriam and Theo Siebenberg bought their home in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City in Israel, they didn't know that they'd find a piece of history that dated back more than 2,000 years. When the two had purchased the house, the Hebrew University had been excavating around the quarter. They had deemed nothing of importance on the land, but that didn't seem right to Theo.
He took matters into his own hands and asked the engineers who were building his house to do an excavation. While pricey, it paid off. After eight months, they begin to hit paydirt. Along with several little treasures, the excavation revealed the wall of a 2,000-year-old home, two mikvehs (Jewish ritual baths), a Byzantine water cistern, and more. They also found a 2,600-year-old burial chamber 60 feet down!
Um…what? Yes, you read that right! In 2007, Bob Kinghorn was redoing his home when he found a mummified baby in the floorboards of his East Toronto home. The baby was wrapped in a newspaper that was dated September 12, 1925. Kinghorn thought the baby was murdered, but no one will know what happened. The police were unable to find the cause of death.
That isn’t the only story, either. That same year, a Florida woman found a suitcase in her parents' storage locker. In the suitcase, there was a mummified baby wrapped in a newspaper from January 9, 1957. This boy was wearing black nylon pants and even had hair and the umbilical cord attached. Someone in that Floridian woman’s family has some explaining to do.
All these stories of finding items in the home are great, but what about money? Money would be a lot more convenient to discover, right? In Cleveland, a home contractor was redoing a bathroom when he discovered Depression-era cash in the walls of an 83-year-old home. The bills totaled a shocking $182,000 or more.
Some of the bills were rare and collectible items, and one appraiser stated the find was worth up to $500,000! The only issue? The walls weren't his. The homeowner says it’s hers, while the contractor says the money is his because of an old law. Considering it wasn’t his walls, we would say the money isn’t his, but only the courts can tell at this point!
They say young love is sweet, but we're going to say old love is sweeter. A Memphis couple was renovating their more-than-a-century-old home when they came across letters that dated back to the First World War. They were written by an officer-in-training, who had to tell the woman he loved how he really felt.
The recipient was a woman named Anna Bunch, who was born in 1901. There were about 25 letters tucked away under a floorboard in the attic. Unfortunately, they were hard to read in detail as the letters began breaking down as soon as they tried to unfold them. Both Anna and the officer passed away, but the letters will live on!
This is a scary one! One Redditor bought a home only to discover an undetonated bomb hanging out in the rafters. At first, neither he nor the realtor knew what to do. He inspected the label and saw that the manufacturer is Thermador Electrical Mfg Co, which would mean it dates back to the Second World War. A WW2 historical expert stated that if it weighs about 30lbs, it's empty.
Who is going to touch the thing?! Someone had to. The homeowner later discovered that the bomb was empty on the inside, but that didn’t stop people from contacting him, wanting to buy the piece of war history. He stated one person wanted to purchase it for $500. Sadly, we don’t know what happened to the bomb.
The Purple Heart has remained one of the most important pieces of recognition the military can give a service member, so it’s almost sad to hear how many people find them in their homes. When renovating their house, this Redditor found a purple heart and tried to contact the original owners.
It felt cheaply made, but he later found out it was from the Second World War. This meant metal was expensive, so the military likely wanted to ration anything they could. He and his grandfather found the son of the service member who was awarded the item, but he passed away soon after. The two decided to donate it to a museum in New Orleans.
This one was surely a shock! First featured on Antiques Roadshow, a Massachusetts woman stated she was cleaning out her grandmother’s basement. She stated she found tons of books and photographs, but this one stood out. She said she was “struck by what she found inside.” That sounds like a major understatement.
It was a typical photograph album from the 1860s, but this one wasn't so typical. It had images of President Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet, all signed by the members. It also had the senators' photos and signatures from the area. Considering Lincoln signed so few things, the expert appraised it at $100,000 to $125,000.
