From 1970s Y-fronts to gold teeth and carefully placed pennies, readers describe the strange, horrible, sometimes hilarious treasures left by previous occupants
Our new house had once been the home of a ferry boat captain and his family. The previous owners requested that we dispose of anything left behind. “We’re going to find a body,” I told my husband as we considered the piles and piles of things in the den, the garage and the attic.
It took a year of remodelling the house before I finally got around to sorting through the sheds. There was a lot of rotting junk: mouse-eaten baseball caps, a wooden bat, old cassette tapes and a very large suitcase. When I opened the suitcase, I fell backwards and screamed. My husband and neighbour came running up the driveway. It was a body in two parts: a full head of hair, arms, hands and a torso in one half; legs and feet in track pants and sneakers in the other. Both halves wore an Adidas tracksuit.
We peered inside to get a better look. She was a full-size resuscitation doll, probably used to train ferry personnel in first aid and rescue. My husband looked at me, his mouth wide open and his eyebrows raised. “I told you so,” I said. BL, Washington, US
