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People Who Have To Enter Other People’s Houses As Part Of Their Job Share The Most Disturbing Things They’ve Seen (30 Answers)
Our homes are our kingdoms, and no one dares to take that throne, I mean the sofa, away. So no wonder in the comfort of their home, everyone can do whatever they please, whether it’s hoarding stuff, keeping a full-size pig, hosting an exotic animal shelter or having anatomically correct drawings of oneself hanging on the walls. And I did not just make these up.
In fact, this is some of the stuff that people keep behind their doors. After Redditor superfleh posted the question “Redditors whose job requires them to go into other people's houses, what is the weirdest thing you've seen?” the thread blew up with 22.9k upvotes and 5.4k comments.
It turns out that the weirdest things they have seen vary from spine-chilling to totally wholesome, so you can never judge an owner by their house exterior. Read on for some of the most interesting answers below!
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#1
A full ceremonial dungeon. In an otherwise incredibly gorgeous, multi-million dollar home on the beach in Hawaii.
The home had no solid corners in the entire thing - only colored glass windows in every corner as to have no demonic entities trapped within.
And when I say a ceremonial dungeon, I am not talking about an S&M dungeon — I am talking about a full blown literal dungeon room carved out of stone with medieval candle holders on the walls and an enormous, long table with high-backed chairs.
The chair at the end of the table had a round window in the ceiling overhead that looked up to ANOTHER window in the next ceiling above which we were told aligned with the full moon on a certain night of the year.
So, I’m at least in the top 10 here right? Because I’ve been trying to figure that sh*t out for like 18 years what I saw.
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#2
Had a client who did exotic animal rescue, she had a whole bathroom dedicated as a habitat for a sloth.
He-Matt & the MOTU 3 years ago
If I had a sloth it could have my entire house. I've heard they take an horrific dump, though. Swings and roundabouts.
#3
Went into a woman's house that had a lifesize replica/mannequin of herself mutilated & murdered.
Turns out, she's a semi-pro actress. She's been an extra in a dozen or so motion pictures. One of which was a B level hack film. The special effects crew made a latex replica of her for a couple scenes in the movie & let her keep it afterwards.
It was very real looking. From a foot away, you'd think it was a real mutilated corpse. Creepy, but I can't blame her for wanting to keep it.
Bored Panda reached out to the Redditor Superfleh and the author of this thread on r/AskReddit, who said that they have always been curious about what goes on in strangers' homes and figured that people who regularly find themselves in strangers' homes might be able to share some interesting stories.
“I was definitely surprised by some of the depravity, but the story that surprised me the most was the one about the woman who injured herself then never bothered to call 911,” they commented on the responses.
Moreover, the author said that this thread has made them think hard about mental illness. “How a lack of support from the social system some people find themselves in really exacerbates things. Either due to stigma or due to a lack of financial ability, people with severe mental illnesses are not given the support they need. It really highlights the need for social change in order to care for the vulnerable,” they told us.
#4
I was a paramedic and then later a police officer for many years. I've seen enough hoarders situations to last me 10 lifetimes. Probably the most odd thing I've ever seen was in the home of a sweet old elderly couple. Their home alarm went off in the middle of the night due to a malfunction of some sort. This is a very common call. My partner and I showed up and the couple was very nervous that someone had broken in, so they asked us to do a check of the inside of the home which we agreed to. The house was pretty big, including a very large finished basement with lots of rooms in a crazy array. It actually reminded me of Buffalo Bill's basement from Silence of the Lambs, but cleaner.
We opened one door and found a square room, about 12x12 feet. Walls alternating pained blue and red. But the odd bit was the room had nothing in it but a single chair directly in the center, and eyebolts in the concrete floor - one on each corner of the chair. The chair was one of those old school chairs you'd find in a 1960's office or waiting room. It clearly looked like this room was designed for some odd sexual fetish or interrogating Al Queda. I remember when I saw it, I stopped dead and stared. It was so creepy, I felt like I walked into the set of a Kubric film. My first thought was I'd turn around and find the old homeowner with an axe, ready to take my head off. My partner, who was directly behind me looked in and said "well we just found the discipline chamber." Fortunately he didn't grab my shoulder first, or I might have shot him.
Had we not been given permission to search the entire house, I'd have worried there were people captive somewhere in that home.
#5
Socialworker. A split personality schizophrenic autist with ocd. He loved many things and each thing has a separate part of the house dedicated to this single thing.
A Mercedes wall with hundreds of Mercedes models and merch.
His mother's hand painted plates. 50 odd pieces.
Romanian traditional leather dancing belts. 75 odd pieces.
70's gay pornography of husky men. An entire wall plastered with cutouts and a decent collection of homoerotic retro sextoys on display. He was straight though. No homo.
An impressive collection of bibles signed by hundreds of priests, bishops and even royalty.
He loved herb jars too. Had hundreds, all neatly sorted.
An entire section of his apartment dedicated to various ceramic cooking ware. Crockpots and the like. Apparently German Crockpots are the best. Who'd had thunk?
Imagine this and more, all in perfectly ordered sections in a house. Like a museum.
And god help the fool who would touch or even worse, move, ANYTHING. I bumped a model car and his caretakers told me it took him 3 weeks to fix it and forgive me. I'm still not allowed near the Mercedes wall.
Good man though. Many funny stories. Smoked like a Chinese industrial park too.
#6
Delivered pizza to a house where I was greeted by a man and what I thought was a large dog.
Until it neighed at me and I realized it was one of those miniature horses.
#7
I worked for a moving company and we went into a lady’s house and kept finding needles everywhere. Behind the furniture, down in the couch and chair cushions. We stopped after a couple min and refused to finish the job. Turns out her teenage daughter was diabetic, and would just toss the finger prick needles, and syringes everywhere. She honestly didn’t understand why we refused to touch the furniture after one of the guys carried some cushions and wound up with a needle stuck in his shirt.
Chucky Cheezburger 3 years ago
Oh hell no...Even if there was a legit reason for having the needles. Theres no good coming out of that situation.
#8
I was at a house for a cable TV service call, customer wasn't home so I called him. He said, "I will be home in five minutes, and don't freak out, but I have a tiger on the truck".
When he got there, he had a tiger in a cage on the back of his truck. I got to pet the thing, feed it a little, and then went on to see his venomous snake collection, his hand grenade collection, and his hot sauce collection.
The very next day, I was at another service call, and asked the customer to get to the pole in the back yard, and he told me that he has a tiger in the back yard, so don't freak out. I got to pet the thing, and feed it a little.
I had been working cable for 18 years to that point, and had never encountered a tiger in all that time. I have been working cable 7 years since, and have had no further encounters with tigers in that time. But, for two days consecutive, I visited homes with tigers.
P.S. South Carolina
#9
A woman who built an aluminum foil tent over her bed so "they" couldn't control her dreams or thoughts while she slept. I found out later that she been a member of the Branch Davidians.
#10
I used to install Dish Network for a living.
I was installing for an elderly lady, who complained that her "sister's" TV always showed the same thing hers did. I had a 2 tv installation order so I figured that would be OK.
I finished the installation and was demonstrating the system when she looked at the full length mirror and complained that her sister's tv was still showing the same thing.
Noped out of there as quick as I could, and left notes on the account in case she called in.
#11
I think this counts. When I was a delivery driver in college, I delivered like 8 xlarge pizzas to a sorority on campus. The girl who answered the door was completely naked, and the rest of her sorority sisters were standing way back, dying with laughter. She quickly grabbed the pizzas, said “this is your tip”, and shut the door. Cue rapturous laughter from inside. I didn’t mind one bit.
#12
I do pest control and when I climbed an attic ladder and switched on my flashlight I saw a person up there waiting for me. Turns out they kept a mannequin in the attic to scare squirrels. Didn't work, the squirrels were nesting two feet away. Scared the sh*t out of me. Also found Her Royal Majesty, The Queen of England, in life sized cutout form in a basement closet. Also scared the sh*t out of me.
#13
Lots and lots of people don't have beds. Doesn't seem to matter if it's a $500k house or a $500/month apt, there are a ton of people without a bed.
#14
Working as locksmith, get call to rekey house. Talk to client before I show up, she seems like a completely normal lady. I show up, we talk for a moment outside, completely normal house from all looks, she's an RN, 0 warning signs. She goes to open the door and let me in and starts acting sheepish, she starts apologizing and says something like excuse the mess. The door can't open all the way, there's 3-4 FEET of trash everywhere. Not hording boxes or collecting weird stuff but just garbage, rotting stuff, piss, sh*t, piles of it. There's a 9inch wide walkway through the garbage that's 6inch deep of compressed garbage, togo boxes, fast food bags, magazines, you name it. She goes in walks through to the living room sits down on a couch that cant be seen, garbage everywhere, a cat appears out of nowhere and sits on her lap lovingly. She seems for all practical purposes like a completely normal functioning adult. I looked it up it's some weird form of the hording condition but just rotting waste. She seemed so normal. I did the job and left, felt bad for her. still kinda freaks me out like there's no way you're guessing this nice nurse lady is actually a garbage troll.
#15
I am a Realtor, I was showing a client a house that was occupied by some renters. Right in the middle of the living room floor there was an atm machine that somebody had been beating with a sledgehammer.
#16
I (electrician) did a call where the family had a full size (7-8’ long) pig, living in their house. Just chilling in a room right off the living room.
Another call where the older couple had VERY anatomically correct drawings of themselves on all of the walls. That was awkward.
#17
I think I can contribute a less horrific but cute and quirky one.
During Covid a family did life size cutouts of other members of this large and close family that couldn’t share in the holidays due to lockdown. They arranged them around the thanksgiving dinner table, sharing family time in the living room, etc. and sent the pics to the grandmother who was stuck alone and couldn’t partake.
It was very sweet. I could forgive them when I’d go by at later appointments and nearly piss myself coming around a corner to an unexpected cutout.
Monday 3 years ago
A friend of mine had to paint a life-size cutout for art class in high school. I think she ended up going with Jensen Ackles. Anyway she (or sometimes her parents) would move this thing around the house to scare people. Sometimes he'd be waiting for you right outside the shower, sometimes he'd be outside looking in your bedroom window...it was great.
#18
At least 30 bicycles in the living room and a wall of car radios in his bedroom. I quickly figured out what my client did for a living.
#19
Hundreds of porcelain dolls in a lady’s living room. Shelves stuffed with em, some were on the chairs and the couches. The living room had no room for actual humans to sit. They were all facing the front door. Dolls. F*cking everywhere. Still creeps me out.
Ty Stratton-Quirk 3 years ago
Lady: "I've never purchased a single doll. They just...show up, and I can't get rid of them."
#20
Aluminum foil on the windows to keep internet predators from molesting her children.
#21
Just recently had a client who was fairly normal on the outside: clean cut, steady factory job, decent car, etc. Inside his house, the roof was rotted through, there were holes in the floor, dead rodents in the kitchen cupboards, etc. The weirdest thing was that he kept talking about his "wife", but it was abundantly clear that no one lives there with him.
This guy has a completely normal life on the outside, but is definitely off.
#22
Oh wow... ummm , former EMT here checking in...
I'm gonna have to go with the man who collected/ hoarded led lights and toys. Might not sound all that interesting but imagine walking into a house full of boxs and boxs of led light pens, light up fidget balls, light up cat toys, ya dig? I'm talking an Edison wet dream.
He also slept on an inversion table , didn't have a fridge, no TV, no radio, 1000's of books and magazines and a hot plate with rows and rows of canned food.
I miss him sometimes.
#23
Thousands of bed bugs. Crawling all over the walls, the resident, and his motorized scooter. There's a reason some Home Health workers take an umbrella or large brimmed hat (think classical sombrero) into the home until they can a*sess for such issues. For those curious, I believe the home was eventually demolished.
#24
Velvet picture of the devil smoking on the toilet, hanging in the dining room
#25
I’ve been waiting for a post like this.... I renovate homes. Upon tearing out a kitchen we found all kinds of small bones in the wall behind the drywall; in addition to a funky smell. Turns out the homeowner was into black magic. Every single meal requiring an animal needed to be honoured by dropping a bone into the wall cavity.
#26
Not mine story, but my wife’s. She was what amounts to a very well degreed social worker. Her job was to do in home assessments on people with mental health issues. She has lots of stories of filthy homes, but she had one client that she visited and the house was absolutely disgusting. Spoiled food and garbage everywhere, unimaginable smells. Clearly the client did not clean. My wife noticed they had small, open sores all over her ankles and wrists. She was super concerned of picking up bed bugs at this time as one of her coworkers had that happen. She noticed a tiny bug crawling on her slacks, tried to brush is off and immediately competed the assessment. She ran to her car, took off her pants and shoes in the parking lot, tossed them into the trunk and got into the driver seat and called me. We left her car outside in sub-freezing temps for the next few days. Afterward, she found out it wasn’t bed bugs, but fleas. The place was infested with fleas.
#27
Current realtor, former cable and fiber optic tech. Chicken intestines. Just draped over a wooden bar hanging from the ceiling, dripping onto the floor in the basement. From the looks of the stains, this was not the first time they’d done it. The smell was indescribable.
#28
My dads business partner bought a home on our street after the lady who lived there passed away— she didn’t have any living relatives. My dad was tasked with getting the place cleaned out and ready for contractors since we lived across the street. The woman who passed was always a nice lady and we’d often go hang out with her on her porch, where she taught my sister and I to knit. We were never invited inside and never really asked to be— at my age I didn’t really think anything of it. Anywho, my dad was REALLY excited to show us the place but kept a secret what was so “crazy” about it. We walked in to find out she was a hoarder! The entire house was filled with 6 feet tall piles of junk, save for the walking paths thru each room which were actually quite neat and the bathroom which only had a pile as tall as the toilet seat. What was strange is that it didn’t even smell much at all! I’d seen hoarding tv shows and they always noted the horrible stench. It definitely didn’t smell good but all the junk was basically brand new things still wrapped up in their packaging or their store bags. It seemed she just had a shopping addiction but was still a neat lady?
#29
The whole family watching adult movie together like it was just another Netflix series. I’m talking an actual adult movie they had either hired on DVD (this was over a decade ago) or bought. It was weird. Husband, wife, young child about 5, and a teenager around 18. It wasn’t just playing in the background either, they were all sitting in the lounge watching it.
There was something about the wife that was a little strange, more than any of the others. The teenage boy seemed relatively normal, was into cars etc. They all seemed like quite happy people.
#30
I'm a nanny and I went to a new job one morning and the little girl showed me what she got for her birthday and it was a windshield cover for a car.
What do you think ?
First Name Last Name 3 years ago
Did repo work for a rent-to-own place. Saw countless dope trays when picking up couches. The saddest thing was getting to a place on Saturday morning and having to take the couch out from under the kids who were watching cartoons. People should need a license to breed.
Erin E 3 years ago
Signe - no, it’s not….. Start paying people’s couch debts if it’s that concerning to you.
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Adrian 3 years ago
Knew a guy in his 80's (now deceased) who was an editor of a large daily newspaper for around 35 years. He had a copy of every edition he'd edited in that time - All tied up in bundles - one bundle per month (28, 29, 30, 31 as appropriate plus special editions). In stacks 3 bundles deep, 4 stacks per year. Nearly 150 stacks. All in this one-bedroom flat - with narrow aisles from front door to kitchen, to bed - to bathroom. Horrendous floor-loading I should think, and I hate to think what a fire hazard it was.
First Name Last Name 3 years ago
Did repo work for a rent-to-own place. Saw countless dope trays when picking up couches. The saddest thing was getting to a place on Saturday morning and having to take the couch out from under the kids who were watching cartoons. People should need a license to breed.
Erin E 3 years ago
Signe - no, it’s not….. Start paying people’s couch debts if it’s that concerning to you.
Load More Replies... Adrian 3 years ago
Knew a guy in his 80's (now deceased) who was an editor of a large daily newspaper for around 35 years. He had a copy of every edition he'd edited in that time - All tied up in bundles - one bundle per month (28, 29, 30, 31 as appropriate plus special editions). In stacks 3 bundles deep, 4 stacks per year. Nearly 150 stacks. All in this one-bedroom flat - with narrow aisles from front door to kitchen, to bed - to bathroom. Horrendous floor-loading I should think, and I hate to think what a fire hazard it was.
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