10.
Michelangelo Da Vinci
Located about an hour outside Venice, the small Italian town of Villamarzana is home
to around 1,200 people.
It’s also where you’ll find two abandoned airplanes that once housed a restaurant called
Michelangelo da Vinci.
The odd construction was the brainchild of a retirement home manager named Gigi Stecca,
who wanted to provide locals with the opportunity to step foot on an airplane.
Many of Villamarzana’s elderly residents had never flown.
Stecca noticed that they gazed at the sky with fascination whenever an aircraft passed
by overhead.
Knowing that they may not otherwise ever get the chance to board a plane, he rolled a Douglas
DC-6 and a Tupolev TU-134 A into town and decked them out with sculptures, frescoes,
and replicas of famous Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo paintings.
He installed a swimming pool outside, giving the
The restaurant opened its doors in 2000.
It offered large pizzas and a wide beer selection that was served in custom glasses designed
by Stecca.
Diners had an array of foods to choose from while enjoying their first experience in an
aircraft, including sandwiches, salad, bruschetta, nightly fish specials, and homemade desserts.
There was a disco every Saturday and live music on Sundays.
By all appearances, Michelangelo da Vinci had a good reputation.
People enjoyed the food and praised the friendly staff.
But the restaurant closed its doors in 2014 amid an ongoing series of conflicts with the
local government over zoning violations.
The planes are still there, abandoned and decaying.
Instead of restaurant-goers, the site attracts urban explorers who are curious to see the
dust-covered and litter-strewn interior.
9.
Ancient Arrowheads
Martha McIntosh has spent the last seven years patiently digging a garden in the backyard
of her home in London, Ontario.
While receiving some help from her daughter recently, she spotted an object she had seen
before, just a few years earlier: an ancient arrowhead.
The two arrowheads McIntosh found in her garden may date as far back as 800 B.C., according
to archaeologist Christopher Ellis, who examined photos of the objects.
One of the artifacts is a type commonly seen throughout southwestern Ontario.
They’re characteristic of the Early Woodland Meadowood culture, which thrived in the area
between 800 and 400 B.C.
The other arrowhead, which bears a distinct Christmas tree shape, is likely what’s known
as a Kramer point.
Found mostly throughout the lower Great Lakes region, they first appeared around 400 B.C.
Ellis explained that it’s hard to connect such old artifacts to a particular Indigenous
culture, adding that people found different ways to cope with the environment after arriving
in the area around 13,000 years ago.
McIntosh plans to share the arrowheads with local First Nations groups and hopes that
she turns up more as she continues to work on her garden.
8.
A Famous Actress
One day in April 1996, a Glendale, California resident stepped outside and found a dazed
and confused woman cowering in their backyard.
It was Margot Kidder, a Canadian-born actress who’s best known for playing Lois Lane in
the Superman movies.
Kidder had been missing for three days when she was found in soiled clothing and after
chopping off her hair in an attempt to alter her appearance.
Her body was covered in scratches from hiding in the bushes.
The troubled actress was extremely paranoid.
She was convinced that her ex-husband was plotting to kill her, and had thrown her purse
away because she thought there was a bomb in it.
Police Sergeant Rick Young described Kidder as “frightened and paranoid” and said
that she was “in obvious mental distress.”
At the time, the 47-year-old was struggling through a host of health and money problems.
She had recently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but was in denial about her ailing
mental health.
Kidder went missing after a data retrieval company failed to retrieve three years’
worth of drafts for an autobiography she was working on, which triggered a manic episode.
After being found in the Glendale resident’s backyard, she was taken to a psychiatric ward,
where she tested negative for drugs and alcohol.
She was eventually released and was finally able to accept her bipolar diagnosis.
Kidder lived with the disorder as best she could, but ultimately lost the battle against
her demons.
In 2018, a friend found the 69-year-old woman unresponsive in her Montana home.
The coroner determined that she had committed suicide by overdosing on drugs and alcohol,
marking a tragic end to the tortured actress’s’s life.
7.
“Lost” Medieval Palace
Earlier this year, 81-year-old Robert Pole hired contractors to build a bungalow next
to his home in the English town of Wiveliscombe.
He planned to move into the bungalow and sell his house.
But construction was interrupted when the builders found the remains of wall foundations
and floors buried in Mr. Pole’s yard.
The ruins date back to medieval times, and experts believe they might be part of a lost
13th-century building called Bishops Palace.
Records show that there was once a palace in the area.
Its 14th-century gate still stands, but archaeologists have struggled to pinpoint where the rest
of the site’s structures are.
Somerset County Archaeologist Bob Croft told reporters that the complex was originally
thought to be located east of Pole’s property.
This is the first time they’ve found physical evidence of the palace, which was built sometime
after 1256 as a hunting retreat for the bishop of Bath and Wells.
It fell into ruins by the 18th century and eventually became unrecognizable as a palace.
Stones from the buildings were likely repurposed for newer construction projects, according
to Croft.
The team is now working to preserve the structure.
Pole told the press that while the discovery is exciting, the ordeal has cost him a pretty
penny and delayed his bungalow plans.
6.
$150,000 Cash
While picking broccoli outside his McHenry County, Ohio home one day in 2011, 51-year-old
Wayne Sabaj discovered two mysterious nylon bags with $150,000 cash inside them.
He did the right thing and turned the money over to the police, even though he had fallen
on hard times as an unemployed carpenter.
The authorities told Sabaj that if the money remained unclaimed by the end of the year,
he could have it.
The man’s 87-year-old neighbor, Delores Johnson, was quick to try claiming the cash
as her own.
She argued that she had gotten rid of the money because she believed it was cursed,
and now, of course, she conveniently wanted it back.
Several other people filed claims of ownership to the funds, including a local liquor store
owner who said that he thought it could be the cash that was taken from his business
during a robbery.
Delores Johnson passed away while the case made its way through court.
A judge split the cash between Johnson’s daughter, Diane Howe, and Sabaj.
Unfortunately, Sabaj passed away from diabetes-related health issues just 10 days before he was due
to receive his payout.
Maybe Johnson was right – maybe the money really was cursed!
Sabaj’s portion of the prize was given to his son, Kevin.
What would you do if you found a huge stash of cash in your backyard?
Would you keep the money or turn it in to authorities?
Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more awesome
videos!
5.
Lehi Horse
Landscapers in Lehi, Utah encountered a rather unexpected surprise in 2018 when they unearthed
the skeleton of an ancient horse in someone’s yard.
Experts originally believed that the mare lived around 16,000 years ago, during the
last ice age.
Her remains were found along the bed of an ancient lake that dried up long ago.
But a recent study determined that the skeleton is no more than 340 years old.
The Lehi Horse was 12 years old when she died sometime after 1860, before Europeans settled
in the Salt Lake region.
She was raised by Native Americans who lived in the area, perhaps members of the Ute or
Shoshone tribes, according to lead study author William Taylor, who spoke with Live Science.
Fractures in the horse’s back and severe arthritis – injuries that are rare in wild
animals – show that she was ridden.
An isotope analysis of her teeth revealed that the mare’s caretakers fed local plants
to her.
These findings further show that she didn’t live during the ice age as originally thought,
because horses in North America weren’t domesticated at that time.
4.
Stolen Ferrari
While digging in the mud outside of a Los Angeles home in 1978, a group of kids struck
what looked and felt like the roof of a car.
They flagged down a sheriff’s deputy and a digging team was summoned to the property.
Soon enough, a metallic green Dino 264 GTS Ferrari was being pulled up from the ground.
The discovery made the front page of the Los Angeles Times, which reported that the car
was in shockingly good condition.
Other than a hole over the right taillight, there appeared to be no visible damage.
Photos from the scene have circulated for decades as the case continues to fascinate
people.
The car’s owner, Rosendo Cruz, had reported it stolen in 1974, four years before police
dug it up.
But the case went cold from there as law enforcement struggled to figure out how and why it ended
up buried in someone’s yard.
In 2012, Jalopnik writer Mike Spinelli contacted Dennis Carroll, one of the original detectives
that worked the case.
Carroll told Spinelli that a tipster had told investigators about the buried car’s existence
and whereabouts.
To shield the informant’s identity, detectives concocted the story about a group of unsuspecting
children discovering the vehicle.
It also turns out that the car wasn’t stolen.
The tipster told law enforcement that Cruz had hired some guys to stage the crime so
he could collect on the insurance.
Police were unable to prove these claims, however, and Cruz was never charged with any
crimes.
The Ferrari was handed over to the insurance company that handled the original theft claim,
and it was soon discovered that the car wasn’t in as good of a condition as it seemed at
first glance.
In fact, it was in disastrous shape.
The body was rusted out and the damage had spread to the leather seats, because whoever
buried the car forgot to roll up the windows first.
A young mechanic bought the Ferrari at auction and restored it to perfect condition.
Nobody knows what happened to it after that, but many believe that it’s still out there
somewhere, perhaps in the possession of a classic car enthusiast.
3.
Buried Cemetery
Seattle is a relatively young city, so its archaeological record isn’t as rich as it
might be in a place like London.
But artifacts occasionally turn up.
The Seattle Times recently reported that two or three buried headstones are found on homeowners’
properties every year.
Local resident Bryan Vaughn first dug up a chunk of a headstone around 20 years ago while
working in his garden.
Over the years, more and more grave marker fragments turned up.
Vaughn found out that they were used as fill for his yard.
It didn’t feel right to throw them away.
Not knowing what else to do with the pieces, he used them as door stops for his greenhouse
and shed.
State anthropologist Guy Tasa told CBC that the concrete fragments were from temporary
grave markers that were used until a permanent headstone was put in place.
He explained that it’s still unusual that they were used as fill.
Oddly, the names and details on the headstones don’t match up with Washington’s vital
statistics records.
It’s possible that they contain spelling errors or the wrong birth- or death date,
which would explain why the names can’t be connected with official documents.
Vaughn’s rototiller recently struck a complete headstone belonging to someone named Andrew
Olson.
He’s not quite sure what to do with it, so it’s sitting in his yard for now.
2.
World War II Bombs
After World War II, thousands of homes were built over a military bombing range in Orlando,
Florida.
This was somehow done without someone realizing – or, perhaps, without caring – that the
12,000-acre (4,856 hectares) site was littered with unexploded bombs.
The first explosive was discovered in 2007 near the running track at a local middle school.
Since then, over 400 live bombs and rockets have been found on the school’s property
and in people’s backyards in nearby housing developments.
The Army Corps of Engineers launched a $10 million cleanup of the site.
Using metal detectors, they combed through residents’ yards, placing a red flag on
the location of each hit.
Despite the cleanup effort, there’s still a chance that someone could stumble upon a
live explosive.
The project’s leader, Mike Ornella, refused to guarantee that the area was safe, but he
told CNN that “chances are, it’s not a problem.”
Residents are understandably upset.
They’ve filed over a dozen class-action lawsuits against the building companies, who
they say should have known about the bombs.
Some feel trapped in the neighborhood, like they’ll never be able to sell their home
and move elsewhere.
1.
Treasure Hoard
Back in 1990, a metal detectorist from East Norfolk, England found an old coin in his
backyard.
He amassed 131 coins over the next 30 years, amounting to what might be the largest Anglo-Saxon
gold hoard ever found.
It’s so big, it rivals the famed Sutton Hoo hoard, which has more gold but fewer coins.
The collection consists mostly of Frankish coins called tremisses, dating between 580
and 630 A.D.
There are also nine larger Roman coins called solidi, which were worth three tremisses each,
and some gold jewelry and pendants.
The treasure gives experts an opportunity to learn more about early 7th-century trade
in the region.
It has already shown that coins from outside the area were used before currency started
being minted locally.
A local coroner is currently examining the contents to determine whether they’re considered
treasure.
Anything that’s over 300 years old and made from more than 10 percent precious metals
will become property of the Crown.
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