Old places and things generally showcase something that leaves us amazed and pondering about its very existence. But, for this couple, a simple task of renovating their basement turned out to be memorable and something that they will remember for being extremely shrouded in mystery.
An Old House
A young couple even in their wildest dream hadn’t thought about the discovery from their basement. When they decided to buy a house built in the 1940s, they were just aware of the fact that it had multiple owners over the last couple of decades.
Remodeled The Basement
They decided to get their basement remodeled, not a completely though, as they couldn’t afford it. Consequently, they were up to the task to clean it up and make it appear as good as possible. During this process, they were amazed to find strange writings and drawings on the wall.
Liking To Nazis
The walls were adorned with a string of Swastikas, which were scratched on it. To them, it seemed that the previous owners might have been a Nazi supporter as the house was built in the 1940’s. “I am a 35 years old do-it-yourselfer, so I had remodeled everything on the first and second floors when it came time to remodel the basement,” the current owner said.
Heap Of Dust
Moving ahead on their task of renovation, they started by removing the basement ceiling. But, the task didn’t turn up to be that simple as they had expected. “There was a good 1/4 inch of dust on the ceiling. We put up plastic to keep the dust out of the rest of the house, then we exposed and patched the air returns first,” the current owner explained.
A Strange Discovery
They were on to their task with all their vigor. Suddenly, they were taken aback by the sight of a box concealed in the ceiling. It was when they were working down in one of the basement’s corners that they found the mysterious box hidden next to a pipe.
Growing Curiosity
The interesting fact that the house was very old, precisely being built in the 1940s, and had gone through multiple owners intrigued the couple all the more. From the moment they saw the box, they went restless. Along with speculating about the contents of the box, the couple had a constant fear as to what might they discover.
Easy To Lift
The owners decided to end the suspense by deciding to take it out and open it. Surprisingly, the box didn’t require much effort to lift as it was very light, but they were sure of one thing that it was not empty. There was definitely something in it.
Toy Banana
After taking it out, the couple used a toy banana for scale. “We took the box outside. It had something inside, but nothing heavy like coins or gold bars. I thought I might get lucky, though,” one of the owners recalled.
Started Guessing
Judging the condition of the house, the pair were waiting to witness some antiques.“We were starting to guess a lot at this point. My wife thought we would find some old recipes, I thought we might discover some vintage sports cards”, the owner said.
Opened The Box
After speculating about the contents of the box, the couple finally decided to bring an end to it by gathering the courage to open it. Their spirit steeply dropped when they noticed that the box wasn’t that special as they had expected. Evidently, it contained nothing apart from an old newspaper, which unluckily for them, was also not that special.
Why This?
The only possible reason that they could think of finding the newspaper in that bag was, that it might have been used in order to protect and preserve something of more valuable and significant nature.
Really Old…
They decided to gather more insight into the newspaper. Consequently, taking a closer look, they found out that the newspaper was dated March 25, 1951. Seeing this, they deduced that the box might have been concealed by the original owner himself. “The date on the newspaper must be near the time the box was hidden,” the owners said.
Something Else!
The couple was left surprised when they suddenly discovered an unusual package wrapped in something which seemed to them as wax paper. Their curiosity grew rapidly when they found three small packages on ripping the wax paper apart.
Money?
Finally, there was a little smile on their faces, when the inquisitive couple found 20, 50 and 100-dollar-bills from inside the package. Fortunately, for them, they were in perfect condition. The series of strange discoveries in that short span of time left the couple perplexed.
Freaked Out
Obviously, this was not something that new homeowners witnessed on a regular basis. This basically flipped the couple, convinced of someone playing a bitter prank on them, they ruthlessly started looking for hidden cameras in their home. “We were freaking out. This doesn’t happen to us! What do we do? Where are the cameras?”, they said.
$20 Banknotes…
Amusingly, they found $20 currency from one of the packets found in the secret box – “We didn’t get a picture opening each package, our excitement overwhelmed us, we spent hours making an inventory of everything we found in the box. We decided that we needed to have the special bills appraised and talk to a lawyer about how to proceed”, the couple admitted.
Entire Content
Finally, the whole mystery had been unraveled. All the banknotes that they had found dated back to 1928-1934. They felt like being on top of the world when they ended up with $23,000 dollars on their hands. “This was a wild ride for us. We are boring people and have been dumping our extra money to pay off our mortgage and that is where this money will go too,” the couple said.
A Lucky Day
It seemed that their previous good deeds were reaping some extremely good benefits for them. As, after finding fifty-dollar banknotes and a couple of rare $100 bills found in the box, they went on to discover another concealed treasure in their basement.
Another Box!
It was just a normal day for them, as the wife was at work and the man continued his work of remodeling the ceiling. It turned out to be a deja vu for the man when he found a second box, identical to the first one, hidden in a similar way.
Waited For His Wife
After taking out the box from the spooky corner, the man surprisingly noticed that it was identical to the first one. Keeping a control on his overbrimming curiosity, the man decided to wait for his wife while continuing the work of tearing down his ceiling in the meantime.
Another Newspaper
“I sat and stared at it, and cleaned my precious for hours while waiting for my wife to get home,” the man said. Finally, when the wife came back home, the couple decided to open the box and look at the contents. Strangely, they found another newspaper from the same year, 1951.
Contacted A Lawyer
As the couple was riding their luck, it doesn’t seem that astonishing to tell that they found the second box filled up to the brim with $20 bills. Thinking wisely, they decided to contact an estate lawyer to know more about the details of the legal aspect. On further investigation, they found out that the original owner of the house had died in the 1960’s and had no descendants. This meant that all the money was legally their’s now.
Great Fun
“All the money is in the bank and will be paid toward our mortgage, minus taxes. We seriously had to make an appointment and sit there and watch them count it all out. It was great fun,” the couple said.
As You Sow, So Shall You Reap!
The couple decided to sell the antique bills and ended up with an astonishing amount of $45,000 dollars. They believe everyone reaps what they sow: “We are generally good people. We try to help others when we can. Acts of kindness go a long way.”