If you spend enough time in thrift stores, you eventually notice something: people have all kinds of super weird sh*t and they eventually end up donating it to Goodwill and other places like it.
Pretty much every bizarre thing you could ever imagine lines the shelves of those stores and we’re about to hear about a bunch of them from thrift store employees.
Let’s take a look at some weird stuff that AskReddit users have seen donated to thrift stores.
1. Righteous bucks.
“I found 125 dollars in the front pocket of a kids coat!
Had to be like a 3-4 years old.
Next day I found more money in another jacket!”
2. Uh oh…
“Worked at a Value Village a long time ago and a coworker found cremated ashes.
They were in a box that had the funeral home info on it so our manager contacted them about it.”
3. Expensive stuff.
“I used to sweep the parking lot of a Goodwill and they would toss very interesting stuff in the dumpster.
Hundreds of books. Like really expensive ones. Leather bound sets of classical works from the 1920s, early prints of sci fi novels (I found a nice collectible copy of Dune recently), family bibles stacked thick with memories. Food dehydrators, paintings, collectible sports memorabilia, super valuable vintage tools and fixtures.
Most of it is just stuff that nobody bothered checking the value on before chucking it out, and it’s really sad. I found a destroyed collection of old Spalding baseball bats, the oldest being from the 30s. They were left in the dumpster in standing water for days at least.
It’s sad to see things like that go, maybe because at one point someone loved them very much, and someone else decided that all the care it took to collect these treasures was a waste.”
4. Be careful!
“A co-worker found a live hand grenade.
Bomb squad was called.
Be careful when you donate grandpa’s stuff, people.”
5. That’s interesting.
“A dead bat, a switchblade, a pocket watch painted with radium, and an 18th century wolf trap.”
6. Jackpot!
“I was examining an old manual typewriter someone donated.
It had a vinyl carrying case with a zipper pocket on the inside. I opened it and found a manual, the original receipt, and an envelope of Polaroid pictures. The pictures were of several women in lingerie or semi-nude. All looked like they were in their 60s-70s. At the bottom of the Polaroid was a name and date, covering about a 10-year span.
One of the nicer things I came across working that job, better than dealing with the dirty underwear we got on the regular.”
7. Sorting through it.
“I tend to sort books at my store so have found a few odd things in there.
Cash as bookmarks (about $150), a book with carved pages to conceal some jewels and gemstones, a few 1st edition books on agriculture from the 1800s, LOTS of handwritten recipes, personal letters.
And my favourite: a letter sent in the last mail delivery from Hong Kong before the British returned it to China affixed with EVERY stamp available at the time and mint versions of each of this stamps enclosed.”
8. Are you hungry?
“A great big plastic shopping bag full of cooked spaghetti.
No sauce.
Probably weighed like 11 pounds or so.”
9. Disgusting.
“I work at a thrift store as a donation handler.
Gnarliest thing I had seen was a literal stack of mattresses left overnight during off hours. They were disgusting, crawling with bugs and riddled in stains of various shades and hues.
Noped the f*ck out of that, called my manager and they brought a forklift out to take them to the trash compactor.”
10. This is wild.
“Love letters between two people from the late 1800s. Multiple suicide letters and one suicide tape, and many diaries.
One diary specifically was written by a gay man going to med school in the 1970s in San Fran. It spans 10 years and has a first person account of his feelings the day Harvey Milk was assassinated.”
11. A week’s worth of stuff.
“Xbox 360 when they were new, with games. Guy said his son got in a lot of trouble so he just gave it away.
A brief case of like 30 fake plastic model flip phones. Like you would see in a Verizon store back in the day.
Used syringe in a fake Coach bag.
This is just from a 40 hour stint.”
12. Oh, boy…
“I sometimes volunteer at a local NGO and used lingerie is almost always there in bags that are dropped off.
Soiled, sometimes.
People are weird.”
13. People are strange.
“I worked at Goodwill on and off for four years and saw s*x toys, dirty underwear, a box of crickets, a snake, a bag of dog poop that had to sit in our compactor for a whole week, a social security card, a used syringe in a purse.
One time a lady walked in with two mice on her shoulder, went to the bathroom, came out without them, and left the store.”
How about you?
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever encountered in a thrift store?
Talk to us in the comments!
