Storage units are typically home to some fairly mundane items, but every once in a while some weird and wonderful items are uncovered.
In North Carolina, a meat smoker was recovered from a unit and sold on to Shannon Whisnant. As he opened the meat smoker once he was home he found an amputated human leg wrapped in tin foil. The leg was the meat smoker’s owner who had kept the leg following the amputation so that he could have it cremated with him. Although the court ruled the leg had to be returned, Whisnant received a payment of $5000. But this isn’t the only bodily part to be found; in separate units in Florida, poorly preserved organs and a woman’s grandmother’s casket were also found. It’s believed the casket had been in that storage unit for 17 years.
Live human beings have also been found. In 2002 a woman was locked in her own storage unit for 2 months. Upon entry she had weighed 150 pounds, and by the time she was found she was only 85 pounds, having survived on canned food and juice.
Some interesting objects have also been found in storage units over the years. War relics, including live grenades have been discovered as well as documents from the American Civil War signed by former US presidents. In Long Island a man offered the winning bid of $100 for an abandoned container. Under blankets he found a strange looking Lotus Esprit S1 which instead of wheels had moveable fins. It was only on the way home when he was towing the car behind him that a passerby informed him it was the famous Lotus submarine car from the 1977 James Bond film, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. In Florida a winning bidder also found a countdown clock and NASA rocket which had been stored in that unit after the program they were used for was discontinued.
Celebrity finds have also led to some unusual items. Burt Reynolds’s own storage which went up for auction contained a full sized horse carriage as gifted by Dolly Parton, his directors chair and even a canoe from the movie Deliverance. Aretha Franklin’s wardrobe was also found after the singer placed many of her clothes into a storage unit following a 2002 house fire. Michael Jackson memorabilia was also uncovered after his parents and two older brothers lost control of a storage building in the 1990s: the unit contained photographs, gold and platinum records and even costumes.
The world of storage units is a strange one, whether items discovered are of unbelievable value (such a Nicholas Cage’s missing $2million comic book), quirky celebrity items, animals, people or even criminal activity. It can only be wondered at what on earth will turn up next.