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If you're familiar with A&E's hit show Storage Wars, in which teams of buyers vie for the contents of repossessed storage units, you may have wondered...what weird things do people find inside those units?
In storage auctions, as in the show, buyers have just a few minutes to decide how much to bid on a unit after viewing the contents through the open door. They can't open boxes, or go inside, so they're taking a chance that something in the unit will be worth their bid, and hopefully, far more than their bid. Sometimes, what theyImage may be NSFW.
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find is just, well...bizarre.
A buyer on Storage Wars, Darrell Sheets, known on the show as "The Gambler", once found a plastic-wrapped decomposing body inside a storage unit he'd won at auction. Turns out, it was the murdered wife of the previous deadbeat tenant.
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When a Florida family was notified that the contents of their storage unit would be auctioned off for unpaid rent, they responded that the contents couldn't possibly be sold, since they contained the remains of a deceased relative. They'd been storing Grandma in the unit for seventeen years.
Then there was the bizarre case of Dr. Michael Berkland, a former medical examiner, who stashed the body parts of Image may be NSFW.
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more than 100 people in his storage unit. Dr. Berkland's "hobby" included the storing of 10 brains, as well as other body parts, such as lungs, hearts, and tissue samples. Dr. Berkland was thrifty, as well asImage may be NSFW.
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creepy, keeping a heart stored in a convenience store styrofoam cup. The body parts, harvested during private autopsies performed in Florida funeral homes, were also found inside Tupperware containers, trash bags and specimen cups.
While some storage unit finds are decidedly macabre, some are extremely valuable. Priceless antiques, historical papers and letters, collectible firearms, and rare original artwork are just some of the treasures that have been discovered in abandoned storage lockers.
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In April of 2011, the winner of a San Fernando Valley storage auction was shocked to learn he'd won stolen property belonging to Nicholas Cage. As it turns out, the near-mint copy of Action Comics Number 1 that the unidentified man discovered in the storage unit had a very interesting history. The grade 9.0 collectible comic book from 1938, was the first comic book to feature Superman. It appeared out of obscurity in 1992 at a Sotheby's auction - no one was aware that such a pristine copy existed - where it sold for $82,500. Nicolas Cage bought it for about $150,000 in 1997, then reported the comic stolen in 2000. It remained hidden for over a decade, until it turned up as part of the contents of that auctioned storage unit in 2011. It was reunited with Cage and has since sold on the comic collector site ComicConnect.com for over two million dollars.
In what was by far the most lucrative sale in the history of Storage Wars, actual pirateImage may be NSFW.
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treasure was found in a locker that sold for $1,000. The treasure was later identified as 'Pieces of Eight Spanish Gold' dating from between the 16th and 19th Century. It took three men to carry out the heavy booty which was valued at over a half million dollars. Pretty good return on investment.
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Some other weird things found at storage auctions include: A copy of K.I.T.T., the car from the show Knightrider, never released Michael Jackson tracks, Aretha Franklin's wardrobe, a live hand grenade, 3,000 year old seeds, and a NASA countdown clock and rocket.
It's the luck of the draw when it comes to storage unit auctions, since you won't know what's in the unit until after you've paid for it. While most storage units contain the usual stuff, it's possible that some may conceal valuable treasures.
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Or something a little....creepier.