- Your basement is probably not somewhere
that you would choose to venture to go to late at night.
Horror movies in popular culture
has made it a place to be feared.
And while fictional stories may creep us out,
as it turns out there are real, documented cases
of people finding very unsettling things in their basement.
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Here are the 10 creepiest things found in basements.
Number 10 is a shark tank.
On August 23rd, 2017, officers from the
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
were executing a search of a home
in the city of LaGrangeville.
Reports had come in that there may be illegal wildlife
being harbored on the premises.
However, what the officers actually uncovered
was nothing that they were expecting.
In the basement of the house was an above ground pool,
within which seven live sandbar sharks were swimming.
With no oceans nearby, it was an alarming sight,
and something that nobody in the unit had ever seen.
In addition to the living sharks,
there were also two leopard sharks and a hammerhead shark,
but those three were dead and floating in the pool.
In fact, several animals were found dead
and rotting, floating in the pool,
a scene that the officers had never seen before.
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Number nine is a hidden chapel.
After moving into their new Victorian home in Shropshire,
a county in Western England, in 2007,
the Farla family noticed a large metal vent in the floor
of what they thought was the lowest level in the structure.
They ignored it, that was until Good Friday of that year.
After a few drinks to build up the nerve,
they pulled the grate up and discovered a hole
that went down to a previously unknown cellar.
Crawling down through the passageway,
the Farlas found a room that resembled a chapel.
Apparently, the chamber was used
as a secret Catholic church in the 1700s,
a time when many Catholics were being hunted down.
This creepy chapel came complete
with pews and a wooden cross,
which had rotted and clearly fallen off the wall.
But perhaps most disturbingly,
ever since discovering this hidden chapel,
the Farlas have claimed that they were haunted ever since.
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Number eight is a live torpedo.
In January of 2010, Linda and Wally DeForest had
just moved into their new home in Indiana
when Linda discovered something bizarre
in the house's basement.
While clearing some cobwebs out of the basement,
Linda came across a heavy metal object
that resembled a large lawn dart.
Showing it off to her son, who was on leave
from active duty in the Army, they quickly realized
that they were holding a military grade explosive.
The regions bomb squad was called in
and happened to dispose of it,
leaving the couple shaken that they'd actually handled
a potentially deadly weapon so nonchalantly.
Experts believe that the explosive
was a mortar or other anti-tank round
that had been actually kept as a souvenir
from either the Korean or Vietnam War.
This family was extremely lucky that their first day
in their home wasn't also their last.
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Number seven is the dolls' last supper.
Located in the heart of downtown Phoenix, Arizona,
Hanny's is a famous restaurant
that's not only known for its late night cuisine,
but its incredibly off-putting sub-level.
Originally opened as Hanny's Department Store,
this building has a long history,
including a number of fires,
and many believe the structure is haunted.
Perhaps playing on that feeling,
someone has created a truly unsettling scene in the basement
which you can see by sneaking past some employees
and exploring it yourself.
In addition to the dusty boxes,
and an apparently oddly dressed mannequin,
you can still spot a number of random dolls,
all posed in what appears to be a recreation
of Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper.
If you're brave enough you can visit it yourself,
if you're okay with being surrounded
by a room full of dolls.
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Number six is Jeremy.
On August 5th, 2013, 21-year old Mark Hartman
and nine other students moved into an off-campus house
for Ohio State University in the city of Columbus.
Almost immediately the roommates
began experiencing odd events,
such as drawers being left open,
and the power being turned off randomly from the basement.
When they'd investigate, they
would hear odd noises coming from downstairs.
They began to have suspicions that the home was haunted.
But one month later, they realized the truth.
One of the roommates discovered a man standing
in the basement who claimed his name
was Jeremy before leaving abruptly.
Police were called in, and disturbingly
after breaking open a door,
found the man had been living in a locked room down there.
He had everything from a TV to clothes,
and several photos, and clearly had
been living there for several years.
Kind of makes you wonder how familiar you
actually are with your basement.
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Number five is a former kidnap cell.
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In late October of 2017, some construction workers
were performing a routine safety inspection
of a building just outside of the city
of Salzburg in Northwestern Austria.
However, they suddenly stumbled
upon something truly disturbing.
While measuring a wall, two of the crew members
discovered a hidden staircase behind it,
which led to a secret basement.
One that had a truly creepy past.
The building was a guest house called Seestern,
which means starfish in English.
As it turns out, it was run by Josef Friztl, a man,
who 10 years prior, kept his own
daughter captive in the basement.
This hidden basement room was a horrific site
of where kidnapping victims were held against their will.
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Number four is a gravestone.
Shortly after moving into a Bridgewater, Massachusetts home,
four-year criminal justice student Derek Kruk
and his roommate made a startling discovery
next to the hot water tanks in their basement.
There, laying flat and sunk into the concrete floor
so far that it was flush with the ground
was a yellowed gravestone.
After cleaning off the face of it,
the men took a closer look, and saw
that the epitaph read that the marker
belonged to Jabez Harden, a war of 1812 veteran,
who was born in 1796 and died in 1879.
Upon doing some research, it turns out
that grave sites and gravestones
were both very expensive in the 1800s,
so it was often much cheaper
to simply bury a loved one's body in the basement.
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Number three are satanic markings.
On August 26th, 2015, Vanessa Balistrieri,
better known by her username, booshy992,
posted a number of pictures on Imgur on her new house.
Specifically, the alarming images
of her new basement and attic.
Both of these places contained some scary things left behind
by the builder's previous tenants.
Apparently the former occupants of the home
practiced some type of demon and devil worship.
As she discovered several markings,
including symbols and creepy phrases
painted on beams and on the walls in sub-levels.
On one crossbeam in the basement,
the words, for I am the earth, and within me
the devil burns, was written in black ink.
However, the most disturbing find
was in a secret room which contained what appeared
to be a summoning circle to call forth the devil.
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Number two is 1,200 skeletal remains.
In December of 1997, construction worker Jim Field
was restoring a four-story Georgian house
at 36 Craven Street in London, England.
A home that one of America's founding fathers,
Benjamin Franklin, lived in between 1757 and 1776.
Digging in the basement, Field discovered 1,200
different pieces of skeletal remains buried there.
After an investigation, it was established
that the bones belonged to
between 10 and 15 different bodies.
It turns out Franklin's friend
and fellow tenant William Hewson
was running an anatomy school
out of the building's basement,
something that was frowned on back in the 1700s.
The remains are believed to have
been obtained through grave robbing and were buried
under the residence to hide the evidence.
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And number one is a burial ground.
After realizing she desperately needed
to repair the foundation of her 100 year home,
Jefferson, Wisconsin resident Helen Weisensel
called on a man with a backhoe
to dig out her basement in 2003.
But, shockingly, when only the second scoop
of earth was dumped out, a human skull rolled out with it.
Adding to the homeowner's horror,
was the it was only the first
of several bodies to be uncovered down there.
An investigation discovered that the skull belonged
to a man who died around the year 1840.
He had been buried in the community's first ever cemetery.
Which, as it turned out, was under the home.
More than just a few bodies were buried there,
including a child and several adults.
That's right, if you're currently living in an old home,
you may want to do some research as to what lies beneath it.
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