From alligators jumping out at Six Flags to creepy human remains, here are 11 of the most
disturbing things found by urban explorers!!
11: ALLIGATOR ATTACKS
Urban explorers in both New York and New Orleans have strange and disturbing tales of alligators
that they found right in the middle of human civilization!
If you found an alligator in the street or a sewer drain, you’d be blown away, right?
At least, as long as you didn’t live in Florida.
We all know that Florida has alligators that invade people’s homes all the time.
But New Orleans has a haven for gators at the Six Flags amusement park that was ravaged
by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005, and you can wander into their lair without knowing
better if you’re not careful.
Urban explorers like photographer Seph Lawless have documented the phenomenon, showing that
in places that humans once used for recreation, alligators and other wild creatures now make
their hunting grounds.
As if that wasn’t enough, residents in New York City occasionally spot these vicious
reptiles in their sewers, subway tunnels, or street gutters.
How do they get there?
To be honest, it’s mostly because of irresponsible pet owners.
Some people buy baby alligators, thinking they’re cute, but after they grow to over
3 feet (1m), the owners start to get nervous.
Sometimes they just abandon the alligators to the street, dropping them down open manhole
covers or into storm drains.
Those alligators could chomp your leg if you walk down the wrong dark alley!
Be careful no matter where you go.
Dangers lurk behind many corners in cities all over, and you don’t want to become alligator
chow!
10.
STRANGE BAT HYBRID CREATURE
During England’s first coronavirus lockdown last year, a group of six friends from Urban
Explorers U.K. claimed they discovered a bizarre “half bat, half human” creature last year
on a beach in the Saltdean area of Sussex.
Jay Jones, one of the group’s founding members, said that they just happened to stumble upon
the strange, foot-long (30.5 cm) specimen while looking around the area for interesting
or strange creatures or relics.
This group actively looks out for the stuff you or I might try to avoid!
And occasionally they find things that science can’t quite explain.
“I have never seen anything like it,” the bewildered man told reporters.
Horrifying pictures that Jones shared online show a dead gray creature with what appear
to be inch-long (2.54 cm) fangs.
The images were so disturbing that Metro staff members decided not to share them when the
news outlet covered the story.
Little else is known about what the animal actually was or whether authorities took the
discovery seriously.
9.
DISCOVERY ISLAND
There’s a small, 11-and-a-half acre (4.7 hectares) island in Bay Lake, Florida that
was once home to Disney’s Discovery Island, where visitors observed rare birds and other
wild animals between 1974 and 1999.
After operating for 25 years, Discovery Island shuttered its doors for unknown reasons (although
poor attendance and high maintenance costs were likely causes) and relocated its animals
to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Since then, the former park has sat abandoned, drawing the curiosity of urban explorers like
Shane Perez, a blogger who swam through alligator infested waters to reach Discovery Island
with some friends and trespassed onto the site in 2009, over a decade after its closure.
“We were literally surrounded by what sounded like thousands of birds,” he said of his
first observations on the island.
They found that the lights still worked and encountered several angry vultures, as well
as the haunting remnants of the park that were left behind among the overgrown wildlife,
including photos of employees scattered inside deserted buildings, preserved snakes inside
jars and of course, a lot of garbage, including an empty Coke bottle.
Not all of Discovery Island’s unwelcome visitors found it as eerie as Perez and his
pals.
When authorities discovered a man camping on Discovery Island last year and ordered
him to leave, he referred to the park as a “tropical paradise” and said he didn’t
know that he wasn’t allowed to be there.
Sounds like a typical “Florida Man” story to me!
8.
CREMATED HUMAN REMAINS
Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) was quick to suspend a Flint
funeral home’s operating license in 2017 after investigators discovered numerous violations,
including decomposing corpses, unsanitary preparation rooms, blood-stained casket pillows,
and maggots.
After the state closed Swanson Funeral Home, owner O’Neal Swanson II appeared to have
simply left it “as is,” as one urban explorer discovered when they became brave enough to
enter the abandoned building.
Inside, the anonymous individual reportedly found bottles of chemicals, dirty embalming
instruments, and a plastic bag of what looked like cremated human remains.
The media obtained and published disturbing images of the explorer’s gruesome discoveries,
adding to the growing list of complaints against the shuttered business.
In addition to the filthy conditions found at the funeral home, Swanson was accused of
selling prepaid funeral contracts without a proper license.
He pled no contest to two felony counts of failing to escrow the prepaid funds and using
some of the money for personal expenses.
A judge ordered him to pay $75,000 in restitution.
7.
DESERTED MANSION
While driving on the outskirts of north London one day last year, urban explorer Colin Smith
spotted a spooky mansion set back behind a long, overgrown driveway.
Curious to see what was inside, he returned a few days later to look around.
“It was quite creepy because it was so dark and the house was so big,” he later told
reporters.
Inside the eight-bedroom home, which dates back to the 1930s and has a servant quarters
and bell system for summoning staff, Smith found a grand piano, furniture, old bottles
of wine, a pair of glasses, painted portraits, silver cutlery, books, black-and-white photographs
and newspapers dating as far back as 1954.
Video footage also shows dishes, cleaning supplies, and a clock on the wall that stopped
at a few minutes past 6:30.
Smith determined that the house had been abandoned for around 30 years, based on the “sell-by”
dates on old cans of food in the kitchen, which also contained a fridge full of moldy
food.
It’s unknown why the property owners deserted the once-lavish home without taking all of
their things, leaving behind an eerie time capsule containing the scattered remnants
of the time they spent there.
When asked by the media what he thought, Smith speculated: “If I had to guess, I would
say that the house was perhaps sold to a property tycoon who simply didn’t have the time or
resources to renovate it.”
6.
HANGING BONES
After reportedly living in isolation for decades, a Norfolk, England farmer named Tony Martin
was convicted of murder in 1999 for shooting and killing a teenage burglar who invaded
his home.
His charges were eventually reduced to manslaughter, and in 2003, Martin was released from prison.
Wanting to evade unwanted attention and publicity, the senior citizen moved to a secret address
instead of returning to his former residence.
Curious to see what was inside but allegedly unaware that the home was an infamous crime
scene, YouTuber Abandoned World Explorer UK spotted the house while on vacation in 2018
and decided to go in and film the experience.
Covered in overgrowth, it contained animal bones on the bathroom floor and some hanging
on string from the ceiling.
There was also a classic MK1 Range Rover in one of the outbuildings and rusting farm equipment
strewn throughout the property.
“The bones around the place made the house seem like it was something out of Texas Chainsaw
Massacre,” the explorer said, adding: “I don’t think I will be going back, I felt
so intimidated and scared whilst we were there.”
Nobody knows how or why the bones ended up inside Martin’s home, or who put them there.
5.
MEMORIAL MOUND MAUSOLEUM
Gravedigger Clyde Booth had a dream of providing the public with a unique alternative to traditional
burials.
He turned his vision into a reality in 1992 when he established Memorial Mound, an underground
mausoleum that sat eight feet (2.4 meters) below ground in Bessemer, Alabama.
The facility’s visitors’ area contained a chapel, a computer people could use to view
pictures and videos of their lost loved ones, and a marble wall where people could leave
items in memory of the deceased.
There was also a room dedicated to selling caskets.
Behind the wall was a warehouse-like room containing metal racks for holding caskets,
which was not open to the public.
Coffins were stacked up to 10 feet (3 meters) high, with the lower placements coming with
a more expensive price tag.
Not many of these empty slots were ever filled, and Booth’s idea wasn’t as popular as
he thought it would be.
With less than a dozen burials in four years and facing financial ruin, he ultimately decided
to close Memorial Mound in 1996.
Relatives were able to continue visiting the mausoleum for the next few years, but the
building was permanently closed in 2000.
Vandals looted the site for scrap metal, leaving it in disarray, and urban explorers eventually
broke in out of sheer curiosity.
Pictures of the dilapidated interior surfaced in 2014, showing broken glass, embalming supplies,
display caskets that were left untouched by intruders, and decaying and skeletal human
remains, including at least one person left in an open casket.
The sickening images finally prompted authorities to act, despite having known of the building’s
neglected state for some time.
They removed the remains of seven individuals and took them to the coroner’s office so
that their surviving family members could make long-overdue final arrangements.
Sadly, by then, some of the graves had been ransacked, with at least one human skull having
apparently been taken as a depraved memento of someone’s trespassing adventure.
4.
“PICKLED” SHARK
When the Wildlife Wonderland park in Victoria, Australia closed down in 2012 due to animal
welfare and licensing concerns, it left behind a gory attraction that would ultimately draw
urban explorers in droves: a preserved 13-foot-long (4 meters) great white shark sitting in a
tank of formaldehyde.
Nicknamed Rosie, the shark died in 1998 off the South Australian coast after getting caught
in a tuna fishing net.
Wildlife Wonderland bought the specimen, paying about $500,000 after all the costs associated
with preserving her and transporting her to the property, where the corpse was put on
display in a custom-built tank.
Despite the hefty investment, the owner of Wildlife Wonderland abandoned Rosie at the
site when the park shut down.
Over the years, the liquid inside the tank became murky and green.
The damage became worse when images and footage of Rosie appeared online in 2018 and attracted
intruders, who covered the enclosure in graffiti, pried the top off and littered it with trash,
including a broken television.
Authorities tried their best to deter urban explorers from trespassing into the decrepit
park, citing dangerous formaldehyde vapors that were escaping from the broken tank and
posing a public health hazard.
The property’s owners also became fed up with unwanted “visitors” and decided that
the best way to curb the problem was to get rid of Rosie.
They sold the dead shark to a business called Crystal World at the urging of one of its
employees, who read Rosie’s story on Facebook.
With the help of a shark and taxidermy expert, owner Tom Kapitany directed an extensive restoration
effort.
It is now safe and permitted for the public to see Rosie, who is on display at Crystal
World Exhibition Centre near Melbourne.
Have you ever encountered a taxidermied animal?
What was it?
Were you weirded out by it?
Tell me about your strange experience in the comments section below.
Then remember to subscribe to World List if you haven’t already for more intense videos!
3.
A DEAD BODY
While looking around the deserted former home of late wrestling star Jackie Pallo last year
in Manston, England, urban explorer and photographer Paul Jones snapped photos of the grand piano
and other items left among the crumbling ruins.
But, as he later explained to the press, he immediately knew that something wasn’t right.
“When I was walking around I saw a door which was shut with some rope across it and
when I tried to push it open I could see there was a mattress up against it on the other
side,” Pallo recounted.
“I just knew there was a body in there, I was almost expecting it.
I managed to push the door open as far as I could and I saw the poor old chap.”
The shocked explorer speculated that perhaps the individual was homeless and had pushed
the mattress against the door to prevent people from entering the room, and then died while
he was in there.
Based on when Pallo’s friend had last been at the property, he estimated that the body
had been there for several weeks.
As disturbing as the discovery is, it’s also rather heartbreaking, as Pallo pointed
out, stating: “This is someone’s son, he may have family, he’s a human being and
to die this way is really upsetting.”
Police did not find any signs of foul play and therefore did not consider the tragic
death suspicious.
2.
LAKE SHAWNEE AMUSEMENT PARK
This disturbed place is totally creepy and probably haunted, to boot!
Located in Princeton, West Virginia, the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park operated for 40 years,
from 1926 to 1966.
It was popular among locals from coal mining families and boasted a ferris wheel, swing
ride, concession stands, dance hall, race track, and overnight cabins.
However, while it was in business, six people died at the park.
One girl lost her life in the early 1950s, when a delivery truck backed into the swing
ride while she was on it.
Then, a nine-year-old boy drowned in the swimming pool when his arm was sucked into the drain
after his mother left him unattended.
The pool was subsequently filled in to prevent anymore deaths.
But the site’s connection with death dates much farther back.
During the mid-18th century, a massacre occurred on the property amid a land dispute between
two families.
The park was purchased and briefly reopened in the late 1980s, but was quickly shut down
so archaeologists could excavate the site on the suspicion of a Native American burial
ground being located there.
The team uncovered the skeletal remains of 13 people, dating back to before European
settlers arrived.
Today, the property is a popular attraction for urban and paranormal explorers who are
eager to investigate rumors of the former park being haunted.
Whether or not this is true, the decaying rides and fixtures that were never dismantled
and removed are certainly a creepy sight.
1.
A CHILLING MESSAGE
Social media users recently went into a panic when images showing the interior of an abandoned
hut in Lincolnshire, England went viral.
Urban explorer Dan Sharkey found the conspicuous concrete structure near the back of a property.
He descended a ladder into the bunker and discovered an array of bizarre graffiti, including
an angry stick figure, a picture of a man bleeding from his mouth, and a strange landscape
of red and black trees.
The room also contained two rusting bed frames and an old blanket.
Above one of the beds is a disturbing message scrawled in all-capital letters: “CRAWL
INSIDE IT WILL GIVE YOU A HUG,” along with a black arrow pointing toward a hole in the
bunker.
The hole is too small to fit a person -- even a child -- but was nevertheless creepy.
Sharkey’s discovery sparked widespread interest from social media users the world over.
While many commenters focused on the structure’s disturbing contents, others were more interested
on when and why the bunker was built, with some speculating that it was once used by
the Royal observation corps.
One person remarked that it’s a shame how people vandalize and destroy abandoned places
that could be maintained and used as attractions.
Thanks for watching!
If you’d like to learn about more fascinating discoveries made by urban explorers, let me
know in the comments below, and while you’re at it, be sure to subscribe.
I’ll see you next time!