What’s the strangest or most expensive item you’ve found or left in a property?

Titus_Wadd

A Susie Cooper dinner service, Clarice Cliff milk jug and a black and white photo of a young Sir John Guilgud...I still have all of them 30 years on.

Ksw3

The hot tub we refused to buy as we didnt want it ... 

jimbog

a pile of toe clippings  in the bedroom

Murphybear

We used to tenant find  for corporate owned flats and found the following

2 new bottles of expensive perfume plus a lot of other toiletries. 

A large toy dog which looked new which we donated to a charity raffle plus a large jar of 1p/2p pieces

The tenants of both those properties had moved abroad with no forwarding address

In another flat they had left about 20 black bin bags full of old clothes, fortunately we didn’t have to sort them out 

A large bird cage which, judging by the feathers everywhere, used to house a parrot 

YoungBlueEyes

I'm gonna stick my neck out and say @Brie's $5 and a big white horse will be the best answer on this thread  

Bigphil1474

Best find I've had is a mixed box of original star wars figures (unopened and opened) in a house I was checking over after it was vacated. Gave them to my brother who sold them for a few hundred £. That was 15 years ago, probably worth a load more now. Fortunately, company policy was anything left in the house we had to dispose of or we could keep. I did find a huge Sony TV in a house once but it was broken. Took 2 of us to get it to the tip. 

EssexHebridean

So, many years ago when I was still quite young my family did a fair bit of charity fundraising for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. As part of this my Dad and I used to go out collecting with a guy around Guy Fawkes night - we started out with a pretty standard effort, but over a few years this gradually got upgraded a bit at a time until we ended up with a 5' high chap who stood upright on a trolley for ease of movement (And to give him another few inches in stature!) . Mum made him a shock of startlingly realistic hair from wool, in a lifelike mix of black, grey and white to give a "salt & pepper" effect. He had a matching moustache, wore a cap and dark glasses (as he was emulating a person who was blind - he also carried a white cane) and he was clad in some old clothes of Dad's, including a pair of decent looking shoes... In 1998 they moved out of our long term family home, and while clearing the loft Dad and I came across "Guy" who we'd not seen for a few years, now removed from his trolley and slumped in a corner. We briefly debated what to do with him - dismantling would take time we didn't really have, and in any event there wasn't really spare dustbin space for him....a look was exchanged, then a grin, and we moved on to the next thing to be got downstairs... 

To this day I do slightly wonder what the reaction of the new owners of the house was when they got up there and idly cast around with a torch... 

(I should add at this point that we have not yet made it into the loft of the new house that MrEH and I moved in to a fortnight ago - so retribution could well be waiting in spades!) 

Sulakobe1

We had an electrician who had to lift floor boards in our dining room and he was shocked to find a single mattress in the void along with a box containing a plate, cutlery and a cup.  There were a couple of old blankets and a tatty pillow too but the funniest thing was a poster of Cliff Richards pinned onto a joist.  We believe the previous very elderly owner must have been hiding someone during the war years.

maladict

If the fish thing isn't an urban myth it's vile and inexcusable.

Nastiest thing we found was a battered truncheon hanging from the wall of a flat where all the bedrooms had bolts on the outside of the doors and legitiate businessmen would occasionally call round of an evening looking for the previous owner.  

Most evocative thing was the rental with a huge storage cupboard full of size ten skirts, size 16 tops, size 10 stacked slingback stilettoes and a stripper pole in the drawing room.  And a pile of unpaid council tax bills and bailiff visitation dates.  Absolutely beautiful flat though.

biscuitbob

In the attic of our first house, among a nest of empty beer cans, I found a baseball-card type collectible picture, of Madge Bishop from Neighbours. Very odd.