Self storage units are used by all kinds of people, from the average family to celebrities. They even make great television shows featuring contestants bidding for a unit with unknown contents. Some of these contestants find expensive items, while others bid on old junk. These items, which have been found in storage units throughout the years, would have come as a bit of a surprise:
A live hand grenade would make you run for the hills. It’s not uncommon to find guns or ammunition, but a Michigan man recently found something even more explosive. The grenade was detonated by the bomb squad. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
NASA equipment. A lucky bidder at an auction in Florida found an old NASA rocket with a countdown clock. These items were apparently stored in the unit after the space programme that they belonged to was discontinued.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find a garage that was abandoned with a rare vehicle inside? In 2009, a Bugatti was found in an English storage garage. The car had been sitting there, untouched, for over 50 years. The Bugatti was one of a very small number of cars ever produced. It is estimated to be worth more than £5 million. Harold Carr, a surgeon from the 1950s who bought the car and put it away in his garage, may have forgotten about it. He died in 2007, and his nephew discovered it two years later. Strange, but true.
Show me the money! A man in California purchased a storage unit in an auction, only to discover that it was filled with rare coins and ingots of gold and silver worth thousands of dollars. The man bought the storage unit for $1,100 and ended up with treasures worth over half a million bucks. You might have a smaller collection but it’s still worth checking with Coin Dealers UK like https://www.gmcoins.co.uk
Aretha Franklin, the legendary singer and songwriter, once suffered a house fire. She decided to put her clothes in storage to protect them. She didn’t seem to miss them much, and she eventually stopped paying rent. The company decided to sell her expensive clothes at auction to recoup some money.
Celebrity Songs: In an old storage unit owned by Michael Jackson’s dad, hundreds of songs never released were discovered. The songs were recorded when MJ was in between contracts, so he didn’t have a record label. Some of the songs were recorded with Tina Turner, and are worth millions of dollars. What a lucky discovery!