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

_Penny_Dreadful

I found a fully functioning set of traffic lights in the attic of a place I bought.  It had been rented out to students previously and I assume that during some high jinks on the way back from the pub once night they decided that a mere traffic cone would not suffice.

jimbog

coffeeplease said:

In the walls, when replacing old plaster and horsehair with fiberglass insulation, I found a cage crinoline undergarment (hoop for a skirt), and a pair of very thin black leather lace up shoes for a woman that were small enough for a child. These were from the later Victorian era about 1870s. 
In another house, in a void under a stair, I found a letter, handwritten in pencil on a piece of simple lined paper, from a girl named Astrid. She wrote to her parents begging them to let her come home, promising she would be good, and telling them she loved them very much. I don't think I'll ever forget that.  

It might be worthwhile looking at the census records of your home to see if there was a girl there of that name

Grizebeck

Anyone found a body?

olgadapolga

Grizebeck said:

Anyone found a body?

Please, let's not start asking about bags for life . . . 

Green_hopeful

I found the ‘Joy of Sex’ book in the loft in one house. 

We left a garden fork with only one tine left. The other three had snapped off. We stuck the remaining tine in the compost heap so it looked normal. We thought it was mildly funny. Was a rubbish fork with only one tine. 

fourmarks

Grizebeck said:

Anyone found a body?

Nope, your secret is still safe.

RHemmings

EssexHebridean said:

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!) 

If this was a horror film, not a thread, Guy would be waiting for you in the loft of your new home. 

Savvy_Sue

LandM1 said:

A glass walking stick in the loft. It’s beautiful, 

There's a collection of them at Clevedon Court, a National Trust property.

ansaryon

Just found this thread! In terms of things left behind,

* A box of gold sovereigns hidden behind a loose brick in the living room of my gran's house. For whatever reason my Mum thought better of asking the new buyers to look once she remembered - so for all I know, they're still there 33 years on!

* A box of silver medals from WW1 and WW2, and some unspecified coins in the wardrobe of my nan's house. My grief-stricken dad forgot all about them until after the house was sold.

I avoided that one myself by living in my parents' house once they died - it's my childhood home. And all I found that was unexpected were some dodgy publications from the 1970s, hidden away at the back of a cupboard.

arthurdick

In our last house that we lived in for 21 years, in the first couple of weeks after moving in, I checked out the attic, saw a load of old junk up there and a box of 250 (counted them about 6 years later) TV Times & Radio Times from the 60's and 70's. I did not know of the internet then, I decided to leave them for the time being and clear them out at a later date.
 6 years later, while sneaking home in my works van for a cuppa, I thought it a perfect time to clear the attic out, so I had a cuppa then got a lot of junk out ready to bung on my van and dump at work, in our works skips, then made another cuppa and went up and got the mags down.   I started reading them while having my cuppa, found them very interesting and was enjoying remembering all the tv shows like watch with mother and atom Ant, loads of others too.

I had only been on the internet a couple of years by then and I remember reading something about this Ebay lark, so I booted up the computer and checked it out, it turns out that these things sold well. so  I left them at home and went back to work to dump the junk..
 Over the next 3 or 4 months, I sold them 1 by 1, for just over £1400.  They were only 1 cuppa away from being bunged in the skip.

The ones that really sold well were the Christmas editions and those with Dr Who stuff on the covers.