From buried treasure to ancient animals, and scary things inbetween, here are 9 of the
strangest things ever found in people’s backyards.
9.
AN 18TH-CENTURY CEMETERY
In 2011, Vincent Marcello decided to dig a hole for a swimming pool in the backyard of
his home, in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Things didn’t go exactly as planned, however.
While workers dug up Marcello’s yard, they unearthed thirteen caskets full of human remains,
stacked on top of one another.
Don’t worry, it wasn’t a mass murder!
It turns out that the property used to be known as St. Peter Cemetery and had been shut
down.
Despite knowing that his property had historic ties, Marcello did not expect to find human
remains.
He did go into the digging process with a somewhat open mind though, stating “We didn’t
exactly know what we were going to find.
This is the French Quarter.
No telling what’s underground.”
The man does have a valid point.
When Marcello realized that the site was an old burial plot, he asked archaeologist Ryan
Gray from the University of New Orleans for help.
According to Gray, the cemetery had been closed due to overcrowding, and it was revealed through
historical accounts and complaints that it became impossible to dig without hitting previously
buried remains.
When St. Peter’s was closed, wealthier families probably paid to have their deceased loved
ones relocated to another cemetery, known as St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
Poorer people, on the other hand, probably left their relatives’ remains in the French
Quarter.
Marcello took the incident with a grain of salt, stating “it’s all part of the New
Orleans culture.”
Kind of spooky though, to have your house and now your swimming pool on top of a cemetary,
you have to admit!
8.
A WOOLY MAMMOTH BONE
In July 2010, one Oskaloosa, Iowa family set out in search of blackberries and instead,
returned home with a wooly mammoth bone!
As a man named John and his two teenage sons walked through the woods on the family’s
property, one of the sons pointed out what he thought was a ball in a nearby creek.
Thanks to his interest in archaeology, John identified a marrow line on the object, and
the family proceeded to carefully extract the prehistoric mammoth bone.
Nearly two years later, the four-foot-long bone was brought to the University of Iowa
for identification, and it was determined to be a wooly mammoth femur.
The bone piqued the interest of Holmes Emken, professor emeritus of Geoscience, who then
organized a group of volunteers from both the University of Iowa and Iowa State University,
to uncover the rest of the bones from the ground.
Mammoths were extinct by the end of the last ice age, meaning the bones are at least 12,000
years old and may be up to 100,000 years old, according to Sarah Horgen, education coordinator
at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History.
More bones were dug up at the site, and are just some of many that have been discovered
throughout Iowa in recent years.
Time to get digging!!
And now for number 7, but first have you ever found anything strange in YOUR backyard??
Let me know in the comments below!!
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We have lots of new videos coming up!!
7.
A LOADED HUNTING RIFLE (AND MORE)
How would you like to walk through your big backyard that you rarely go through in the
first place, only to discover a pillowcase containing a loaded hunting rifle and a cell
phone?
That’s exactly what happened to one man in the northeastern part of Calgary, Canada
in late August 2014.
The disturbing discovery was made one afternoon between the man’s garage and a fence - a
small area that, as I said, he didn’t normally walk through.
He unloaded the gun before calling authorities, who typically advise people who stumble upon
a loaded gun to not even touch the weapon.
You could be destroying evidence, plus you’re getting your fingerprints all over it!!
Police opened an investigation, but the origins of the strange items, and how they got there
remains a mystery to this day.
It seems like someone did something weird and then as they ran past this yard threw
their stuff over the fence to get rid of it!
They were most likely up to no good!
I would certainly be locking my doors at all times if I found those things in my yard!
What if the people came back for it??
6.
AN ALLIGATOR
In the early morning hours one day during May 2014, Sharon and John Bente discovered
an alligator taking a dip in the backyard pool of their Bradenton, Florida home.
The eight-foot-long gator, who’d clawed a hole through the screen of the couple’s
enclosed patio, was simply swimming around and around in circles, chillin.
According to John, the gator had tried to get closer to the home but seemed intimidated
by all the people staring.
The couple called the sheriff’s office, and a trapper came and removed the reptile,
who was taken to a farm in Arcadia.
Even for the Floridian couple, who might expect to see an alligator from time to time, the
incident was shocking.
In an interview after the gator was captured, John stated that he’d be sleeping with one
eye open for quite some time.
I don’t think I’d have trouble sleeping, but would definitely check twice before getting
in the pool!
Or going outside!
5.
$150,000 CASH
When 51-year-old Wayne Sabaj of Illinois went into his backyard one day in August 2011 to
pick some broccoli, the unemployed carpenter’s luck took a sudden unexpected turn for the
better -or so it seemed at the time.
In two mysterious nylon bags, he found $150,000 cash.
Sabaj did the right thing and turned the money over to the authorities, who said he could
keep it for himself if it remained unclaimed at the end of the year 2012.
Delores Johnson, Sabaj’s 87-year-old neighbor, was quick to claim ownership of the money,
saying that she’d gotten rid of it because it was “cursed.”
Multiple other claims were filed, and the case for determining the money’s rightful
owner was handed over to a judge.
In December of 2011, just a few months after the money was found, Delores Johnson passed
away from dementia.
Johnson’s daughter, Diane Howe, was to be awarded a portion of the money, and another
part was set aside as a reward for Sabaj.
Unfortunately, he passed away from diabetes-related complications ten days before he would’ve
received his prize.
Perhaps the money was cursed after all.
The judge ultimately split the money between Diane Howe and Wayne Sabaj’s son, Kevin.
4.
1,000-YEAR-OLD HUMAN REMAINS
Ali Ertuk, a ninth-grade boy from Salt Lake City, Utah, found human bones while digging
up a trout pond in his backyard during March 2014.
He ran to tell his parents and they immediately called the police.
They determined it was not a recent murder victim but much, much older.
The remains were removed by experts from the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts, who
searched the site for other archaeological artifacts, and were then sent to the state
medical examiner for testing.
Medical examiners confirmed that the remains belonged to a Native American who lived around
a millennium ago.
Department spokesman Geoffrey Fattah pointed out to the Salt Lake Tribune that humans have
occupied the area for up to 10,000 years, and that these situations do happen from time
to time.
The next destination for the remains was to a forensic anthropologist, who would try to
determine the person’s tribal affiliation using DNA.
If so, the tribe would be entitled to claim the remains and perform a proper burial per
their cultural standards.
Ertuk had been working on the trout pond for a few weeks before discovering the first bone,
which he assumed belonged to an animal.
When the young boy realized he had found human remains, he feared that he’d stumbled upon
a crime scene.
He said later on that “it was kind of eerie” and “freaked him out” a bit, prompting
him to summon the authorities.
I think I would’ve felt the same way.
How about you, let me know in the comments below!!
3.
WORLD WAR II BOMBS
A 12,000-acre area in Orlando, Florida that was once used as a World War II bombing range
was later used for the construction of thousands of homes.
In 2007, the first bomb was found near the running track of a local middle school.
Over a hundred rockets and bombs have been discovered on the school property and in the
backyards of nearby housing developments since then.
A $10 million cleanup of the area was launched by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Using metal detectors, they combed through people’s backyards, placing red flags on
the location of every hit.
In some instances, the bombs were live so cleanup was long overdue!!
Despite the cleanup efforts, there’s still a risk of stumbling upon a left-behind bomb.
Mike Ornella, who led the Army Corps cleanup, refused to give a 100 percent guarantee of
safety, but said: “chances are, it’s not a problem.”
Understandably, residents were enraged by the discoveries of the explosives, especially
when previous reports by the Army Corps of Engineers were found, citing the area as “a
possible danger to the public.”
Local officials were just as angry and said it was “disturbing that home construction
was allowed anywhere near the property.”
In 2013, another massive cleanup was launched, but the safety of the site still wasn’t
guaranteed.
I hate to say this, but I think it might be time to move!
I don’t think I can live with that kind of risk everyday, especially at school!!
Are you serious??
2.
A FAMOUS ACTRESS
In April 1996, Canadian-born famous actress Margot Kidder was found cowering in the backyard
of a Glendale, California resident.
The dazed and confused starlet, who’s most well-known for her role as Lois Lane in the
“Superman” movies, was taken to a psychiatric ward.
She claimed she was followed and assaulted, but there was no evidence of foul play.
Kidder, who was 47 years old at the time, had been battling money and health problems
for some time.
She had been missing for three days when she was found, wearing soiled clothing and after
cutting her hair off in an attempt to alter her appearance.
Police Sergeant Rick Young described Kidder as appearing “frightened and paranoid”
and “in obvious mental distress.”
No drugs or alcohol were found in the suffering woman’s system, and scratches covering her
body appeared to have been caused by hiding in bushes.
Under psychiatric care, Kidder was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and believed to have
made a full recovery.
However, the actress never fully escaped her demons.
She passed away tragically in May of this year from a drug and alcohol overdose, and
her death was officially ruled a suicide.
She was 69 years old at the time of her death.
1.
A FERRARI
A shocking story broke in the Los Angeles Times in February 1978: two children had allegedly
discovered a Dino 264 GTS Ferrari buried in their backyard.
The car was rumored to have been stolen years before, and according to the reporter, was
in amazingly good condition, with a small hole over the right taillight constituting
the only damage to the vehicle.
There’s much more to the story, however.
In 2012, Mike Spinelli of Jalopnik contacted Dennis Carroll, one of the original detectives
that worked the case.
According to Carroll, a snitch had tipped off investigators to the car’s existence
and whereabouts.
To shield the rat’s identity, police concocted the story about the car being found by two
innocent, unsuspecting children.
The car’s location wasn’t the only information provided by the informant, who claimed that
the car wasn’t stolen.
Instead, the crime was staged by a few guys hired by the car’s owner, so he could collect
the insurance money.
Ultimately, the owner was never charged, because the police were unable to prove the story.
The car also wasn’t in as good condition as the reporter originally claimed - it was
a wreck, actually, but was fixed up by a passionate mechanic who still drives it to this day.
Thanks for watching!!
The next time you think your life is boring, remember that you could end up like one of
these people, and discover something exciting - or, perhaps, horrifying - when you least
expect it.
Be sure to subscribe and see you next time!
Byeeeeee