We’ve all seen it in the movies. A nice innocent family move into a nice quaint looking suburban house – what could possibly go wrong? Well obviously the house must be haunted from all the dead bodies that have been stashed in the walls of the house. Better call an exorcist quick!
Okay so we’re not entirely likely to find a dead body in the walls of our house, but have you ever taken a moment to think about what could be lurking behind all that wallpaper and plaster? What if there’s something completely bizarre built into your home and you have no idea about it! Feeling intrigued? Well read on to find out about the weird things people have actually discovered in the walls of their homes:
Some fingernail clippings and urine
You don’t expect bottles filled with urine, fingernail clippings and red thread to be found in walls, but actually this is quite a common occurrence. The mixture of red thread, urine and fingernails was thought to be a natural (very natural) cure for a house that had been cursed by a witch. People would bury their bottles under the floorboards and into the walls to keep that nasty witches’s curse at bay.
Most recently a bottle of the anti-witch potion was found in a house in Greenwich in 2009. Scientists were able to tell us that the bottle dated back to the 17th century and the urine in question belonged to a smoker.
A live child
Hiding a child in the walls of your home is simply horrifying. In 2009 6-year-old Richard Chekevdia was found in the walls of his grandmother’s house in Illinois. This was two years after the infant had went missing with his mother after a custody battle with the child’s father.
Although the grandmother insisted that the boy was allowed out of the wall, he had been prevented from getting health care and from going to school.
Shoes
It might seem bizarre to for shoes to be found in walls, however it is so common that there’s actually a register for all the shoes found by the Northhampton Borough Council. That actually sounds like a really cool job.
It’s thought that people would put shoes in their walls to ward off evil spirits from entering their home – which is much nicer than a bottle of urine.
Old underwear
Much like shoes being found in walls, the finding of someone’s old underwear in a wall is supposedly very commonplace. Again hiding your underwear in the walls of your home is to do with superstition. Even so, it’s not the nicest thing to leave for the next tenant.
Cats
Another bizarre thing found in walls, another form of superstition. In the 17th and 18th century places like America and the UK were inundated with witch hysteria. Just about every woman was accused of cursing the entire village (leading to a lot of hangings and drownings). Supposedly one way of ridding witches from the area was to place dried cats in the walls of your home. Who knows if it works, but poor cats!
Cash
We’re sure no one is going to complain about finding some cash in their walls! Although if it’s anything like the case of Bob Kitts finding $182,000 in an Ohio home he was renovating for the owner it might not be worth it.
Kitts told the owner about his find and she offered him 10% – which he was not happy about and took her to court. This brought descendants of the house’s original owner (Patrick Dunne) out of the woodwork as they claimed it was Dunne who hid the money in the Depression. A long court battle soaked up much of the money found with each person only receiving a fraction at the end.
Lost priceless artwork
It is thought that a priceless Leonardo da Vinci painting is hiding somewhere in a wall somewhere. Why? Well in 1501 Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint a massive 10ft high and 20ft long Battle of Anghiari scene. In the 1550’s the painting was to be destroyed by Giorgio Vasari who was told to paint over it – something he was loathe to do. People have spent decades looking for the lost art and the biggest theory at the moment is that it is hidden behind a false wall somewhere.
Mobster videos and guns
You can imagine mobsters hiding their money, guns and files in walls and that’s exactly what Illinois mobster Frank Calabrese did. Although worryingly it wasn’t until after his 2007 trial, where witnesses told of his love of stashing his gear in walls, that the FBI thought to get a warrant and search the walls themselves. They found a lot of hidden treasures.
