Self storage surprises
If a property doesn’t have a garage then many people need to rent storage space to store all those bulky or important items that we don’t want lying around the house all the time but don’t want to part with either. Self storage units are used by all kinds of people from your average family to celebrities and even make great television shows featuring contestants bidding for unknown storage contents. While some of these contestants are lucky and find something expensive, others end up bidding on a pile of old junk. None have ever found something quite as weird as these items though, found in various storage units over the years:
A live hand grenade – this was one find that would have you running for the hills. Finding guns or ammunition isn’t that uncommon but recently a man in Michigan came across something a little more explosive! Thankfully, nobody was injured and the bomb squad arrived to detonate the grenade.
NASA equipment – one lucky bidder of an auction in Florida opened up the unit to find an old NASA rocket and countdown clock inside. The items had apparently been stored there after the space program they were a part of was discontinued.
Cars – wouldn’t it be lovely to come across an abandoned garage with a rare car inside? Well in 2009 that’s exactly what happened in England when a Bugatti 57S was discovered in a storage garage. It had been sat there for 50 years, untouched. Only a tiny number of these cars were ever made and so it was estimated that the Bugatti could be worth in excess of £5 million. Harold Carr (yes that was really his name) was a surgeon who had bought the car in the 1950’s, put it in the garage and maybe forgot about it. He died in 2007 and two years later his nephew uncovered it. Strange but true. Keep your unit organised so you don’t ‘forget’ about or lose important items. For Garage Shelving Systems, visit https://www.garage-shelving.co.uk/.
Show me the money – a man in California bought a storage unit at auction and then realised that it contained thousands of dollars worth of rare coins and gold and silver ingots! The man paid $1,100 for the lot and ended up with a treasure chest worth more than half a million dollars.
Celebrity Clothing – the legendary Aretha Franklin once had a fire in her home so decided to out her clothes into storage to keep them safe. She obviously didn’t miss them too much and eventually stopped paying the rent. To recoup the money, the company sold off her clothes to the highest bidder so somebody got to keep the expensive fashion items of the Queen of Soul.
Celebrity Songs – in an old storage unit belonging to Michael Jackson’s father, hundreds of never released songs were found. They were recorded while MJ was between contracts so didn’t belong to any record company. Some of the songs had been recorded with Tina Turner and worth millions of dollars. Now that was a lucky find!