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Most of us feel like our homes are sanctuaries, a castle or fort where we can be comfortable and do things our way. Naturally, one’s home is the perfect place to reveal all of your intricacies and idiosyncrasies. So exploring someone else’s home is a unique and interesting way to see who they truly are.

Someone asked “People who go to others' homes for work, what is the weirdest thing you have seen?” and netizens shared their most bizarre discoveries. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites, and be sure to comment your own thoughts and experiences below. 

#1

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Electrician here. Was wiring a new room when I stumbled upon a secret door. Behind it? A small, fully decked-out disco room—mirror ball, neon lights, the works, all crammed into a space no bigger than a closet. The homeowner just winked and said, 'Every house needs a little secret party spot.' I've seen a lot of odd things, but that secret disco takes the cake. Made me wish I brought my dancing shoes to work.

Futvir , Dustin Tramel / Unsplash Report

#2

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes I was the house that was weird. We had a small kitten that was full of energy. He would jump on our wooden rocker and by the time you noticed movement the cat would be long gone. It legit looked like a ghost so we nicknamed him "floor demon."

We had a termite inspector come by and he commented that the rocker was rocking by itself. I said, "Oh, it's just the floor demon."

For some unknown reason I never thought to explain what the floor demon actually was.

Yeah, he never came back to our house again.

LunaMothThinking , Chunli Ju / Unsplash Report

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sbj
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Bit odd that as a Termite inspector he was afraid of a floor demon

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#3

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Large bee hive in a bedroom. It was inside the home and on the outside. Bedroom door was closed and owner said it’s the bee’s room now.

Eathessentialhorror , Pixabay / Pexels Report

#4

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes I used to do on-site tech support for an internet service provider. Both of my instances involved animals. One was a goat that was a “house pet” and chewed up the hem of my pants as I worked. The other was 2 pet chinchillas, which I was encouraged to interact with (they were so soft!). On the drive home, my eyes started pouring water and eventually swelled shut. I had to pull over, flush them with water, and wait it out. Turns out I’m extremely allergic to chinchillas.

simplecocktails , pixabay Report

#5

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes A ladder outside leading up to a small window in the attic. That’s where his family of pet raccoons lived. The raccoons were using the ladder.

Kpan1983 , Quinten de Graaf / Unsplash Report

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Lyop
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

See! We can live in some sort of harmony with them critters if we only cared enough to.

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#6

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes I work for a company that renovates apartments in between tenants. We often find a lot of gross stuff (the photos sent in the group chat with my field guys when they’re one-upping each other give me nightmares sometimes lol) but the worst I’ve seen in person was when I went to walk a unit with the construction manager after the previous tenant moved out and it just…stank. Like **STANK** stank, like absolute f*****g s**t. It was like walking into a brick wall of stink.

We were walking around trying to find the source of the smell and noticed that it was particularly bad around this one closet in the hall. I tried to open the closet, door was stuck. The construction manager tries and gets it open with considerable effort, at which point we are confronted with a roughly shoulder-height wall of dog and/or cat s**t in various stages of rot. If you’ve seen photos of people’s cubicles filled with balloons by their coworkers, imagine that, but the balloons are animal s**t. It was so clumped up that nothing fell out when we opened the door. Just one solid piece.

The rest of the apartment was pristine. Almost surgically clean. But that one closet was horrifying.

g-a-r-n-e-t , Marie Anna Lee, University of the Pacific Report

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Donteatme666
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8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤢🤯🤯🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

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#7

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Went to an apartment building to do a structural assessment of the property. When it was completed we were asked to go to an apartment where a tenant was complaining of extreme humidity in every type of weather, even though nobody else on the floor, or the ones above or below complained of anything.

So we get in there and are instantly punched in the face with humidity. We're talking rainy season in the Amazon levels of humidity. I have never experienced anything like it before. There was water droplets on every surface of the apartment. She has been pretty diligent at trying to keep the walls and stuff dry, but she was like 80 years old and you'd walk through and the carpet was just like squish squish squish with water pooling around your shoes.

She had this sliding door that opened up to her balcony and from all the water dripping down it onto that section of the carpet there was a mushroom forest. We're talking like dozens and dozens of mushrooms ranging from 2" tall to 2' tall. Just insane to see.

So we start looking around and pretty quickly see the problem. The lady was too elderly to go down to the bottom floor to do her laundry every time she needed to wash something, which apparently was multiple times a day. So she asked her son to install a washer and dryer in her apartment. First it was against the rules of the tenancy agreement, but he also did a horrible s**t job. There was no place for the dryer to vent out anywhere, so in his infinite wisdom he took a big bucket, filled it with water, and then put the hose for the dryer vent into the bucket for some reason. She would fill up this bucket with the drain water from the washer as the hot air bubbled through it throughout the day just unleashing buckets of humid water into the air. So you have this massive bucket, that was pretty much a trough, taking up 3/4 of her closet with this washer dryer setup taking up the remaining space.

She created thousands and thousands of dollars in damage to the apartment. The whole flooring system had to be ripped out and removed. A lot of other things had to be ripped out too. I think all of her furniture was water damaged and swollen and started to get moldy after the washer and dryer were removed, same with a lot of her clothing and bedding/mattress as well. So she was out like $20,000 because her renters insurance does not cover willful ignorance that causes destruction of property and belongings.

MrCrix , Nico146 / pixabay Report

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#8

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Went to a house to evaluate it for residential solar. Very nice lady says "want to see my grow chamber?" It was a very professional setup, small amount of Marry Jane plants. She was going to expand. It wasn't legal at the time. I pointed out that after the solar was installed a city inspector would be stopping by to inspect the connection at her electrical service panel, which was in the grow room.

darkest_irish_lass , Rachael & Zane Ross / Flickr Report

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#9

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes The owners of the house were big game hunters. As soon as you walked through the door you were greeted by two giraffe shoulder mounts. And all throughout the house they had taxidermy everywhere. Walking across zebra skin rugs into a room with a whole pride of lions. Going up the stairs that were lined with ducks with a bobcat posed to try and catch one. All of that and they couldn’t figure out a way to get the squirrel out of their attic.

Red_blue_tiger , Jules Verne Times Two Report

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#10

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Went to install a new furnace in a house. Found a sprinkler head attached to a live gas line.

jeremiahqt , Peter Griffin / Needpix Report

#11

When I did a home visit for a lady with dementia with her husband, I noted their bedroom door was very unusual. It was split in half horizontally so that you could shut the door fully, or just the bottom half on separate hinges. He explained that she would become more confused in the evenings ('sundowning'). It was to stop her from wandering out of the house while he was making dinner, but she would still be able to see out and talk to the family, and he could keep an eye on her. It reminded me of a horse stable door, never knew what to think of it.

manlikerealities Report

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wordsupfool
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It makes sense. Lots of odd-sized little doors in old structures. Wrangling a dementia patient takes creative solutions.

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#12

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Deliverer of Pizza here, delivered probably 20 pizzas to a motel room, thing was it was just one dude there and a whole lot of sexual paraphernalia scattered around the room, he also answered the door wearing nothing but cheetah print undies, that image will forever be burnt into my retinas. 🫠.

Michaelangelato , Terri Oda / Flickr Report

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#13

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes I work in state housing maintanence so we tend to see the worst of the worst when I comes to houses.

Off the top of my head;
- house with the whole floor covered in empty soft drink bottles piled up to knee height. (Through every single room)

- house so badly cockroach infested that every surface in the house was moving

- unit where all the floor was coated in a layer of dried cat p**s and cat s**t everywhere.

- unit where someone overdosed and wasn't found for a week or two. Needles everywhere surrounded by filth + a roughly human shaped outline of fleshy gunk on the floor in the living room.

Skyhawk13 , Petr Kratochvil Report

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Rachel Pelz
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Those soft drink bottles would be cool in a country with a refund system. In Germany, you have to pay 0.25 Euro refund for every plastic drink bottle you buy.

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#14

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes A 15 foot wide, 10 ft high nude oil painting.

Customer: “You like it?”

Me: “Uh, yeah…it’s a nice painting.”

Him: “That’s my wife. She’s on her way now, she’ll be here soon.”

I then sat with the two of them for an hour, having a coffee right beside this massive nude painting, trying not to look at it or his wife.

The_Town_of_Canada , Edvard Munch Report

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#15

A client naked; I was a dog walker. I actually thought she was a beautiful statue until she moved and screamed. The next day she apologized, but I told her it was okay and I thought they had bought a new statue. She was disabled, and myself being a woman, we had a nice laugh and I'm sure she appreciated the compliment.

KnowItOrBlowIt Report

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R.A. Haley
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I worked for UPS one of the drivers told the story(frequently) of the time a woman came to the door in just a towel. The driver had to politely hold the towel up so she could sign for the package.

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#16

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Oddly large amount of blood, like suspiciously larger than a shaving nick or a nose bleed in and around a bathroom sink and floor, with a blood soaked swiffer pad in the trash.


Empty crib except a Chucky plushie.



Tons of empty syringes in the garbage can. Asked the client if he was sure he wanted them mixed in with the regular outside trash or if he had a container for them. I just assumed diabetic. Until he got all weird and muttered "nah, nah, just toss em, just get rid of em".


Fully carpeted home, bathrooms included, with extra mats in front of every toilet, tub, sink, fridge, microwave, stove, couch, chair, cabinet etc. Carpets on carpets on carpets.


V******r next to a jar of mayonnaise on the kitchen counter.


ETA: these are all different houses. Sorry, should've specified that lol.

bananicoot , dfgwk1 Report

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Lexekon
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nature teaches us that we are in the MOST danger, when a velociraptor first dips it's claws into mayonnaise, before proceeding to attack.

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The Original Bruno
Community Member
8 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So I was with my son when an "apartment cleaning service" called over the car phone. "Have some fun with them!" my son pleaded, so I pulled over, said, "thank God you called at the perfect time!" and then asked if they could handle blood stains. "Absolutely!" I asked, "even if there's a LOT?" "Yes!" "Because there's so much... so much... so much blood." At this point, my son gets excited and starts going with the joke, but lacking any subtlety. He starts screaming like he's being murdered. So I go with it and scream, "Oh my God! He's still alive!!! Why... won't... you... stay.... dead???" Now, my wife usually fields the spam calls, and they usually hang up as soon as she asks if the health insurance policy covers her gonorrhea medication or if she still qualifies for life insurance even if she's been dead since 1870. Not this guy. After all the screaming settles down, he's still trying to close that deal!

Catlady6000
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Of course he was!! Do you how much extra he could charge for biohazard cleaning? That's not even counting the blackmail

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Poster
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Carpet on toilet always has seemed extremely unhygienic to me. You can wipe a toilet seat down with bleach. But you'd have to throw a cover like that in the washer with bleach to clean it. Think if the bacteria

Sue User
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

First one. Had some fibroid issues. So much blood. Doc said " yeah, bathroom looks like crime scene, right ?" Yes it did.

Ken Beattie
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So much blood? Yeah could still be from a nose bleed. Sometimes those suckers are like a tap running. If not just about any head cut bleeds like a stuck pig too. Relatively small wound, lots of blood. And blood gets attention, it doesn't take much to seem like a lot. So unless they're talking square feet of blood spatter it's probably nothing.

JennyH
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Dude.... Chuckie in an empty crib?! That's nightmare fuel

Yuri Russonovitch
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If it makes you feel better and makes you smile I can remember telling a patient oh my gosh you have a heart arrhythmia and then suddenly realizing, no I'm sorry don't worry my stethoscope was just wet.

Stephanie Barr
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The blood can be from someone with unusually heavy periods or post partum bleeding. I had a hemorrhage after a LEEP procedure and was bleeding profusely. My house looked like a crime scene and the ER (which told me it would be a three hour wait--Covid season) brought me in immediately when I mentioned I had three pads on and was making a pool of blood at the window where I was talking.

Angell Harding
Community Member
7 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don’t think people realise how far even a little blood goes. It can make a *massive* mess that spreads further and requires more clean up than you’d think. Menstrual blood can be a nightmare with this.

Alex
Community Member
7 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i got scared before i read they were all different houses *whew*

Greenmantle
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Normally mayo goes great on a fish sandwitch... except in this case.

maxiefav.
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8 months ago

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#17

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Used to deliver furniture in college. Someone had us deliver a bunk bed to their basement … coitus dungeon.

woofridgerator , EvgeniT / Pixabay Report

#18

I nannied for a family who was going through some serious s**t behind the scenes, and it got weird for me so often. They had 2 kids, a 1.5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. The mom, a doctor, would come home from work and lock herself in her room for hours while the kids banged on the door and cried for her. The dad, also a doctor, also locked himself in his office a lot and would make me be the go-between for his wife and himself. There was one morning he asked her what was for dinner tonight, and she burst into tears, pulled him behind a door and furiously started whispering stuff, came back in the room, flung something out of the freezer, and stormed out. Nothing was normal in that house. The secret lives of rich people, eh?

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Libstak
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, at least they had a nanny. Also, seems mum has a mental condition or is severely depressed or chronic fatigue. Mum clearly needs quiet alone time alot and Dr dad supports this. This is a good reason for a nanny but it still makes you feel bad for the kids.

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#19

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes I'm a window cleaner, it's a luxury service so most of our clients are fairly well off. I don't know if it is weird but people like to test us. I've seen a literal chest full of cash open on someones bed. They knew we were coming, it had to be intentional. I ignored it, but some might be tempted. I've seen some pipes and other d**g paraphernalia but nothing too crazy.

Less_Department8396 , Pixabay / Pexels Report

#20

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes A pet Racoon but it wasn't exactly a pet more like a wild animal they forced to live with them. They even said as much- he showed up on their porch and they let him in and decided he was cute enough to stay... it was mean and I wouldn't go anywhere near it.

Some-Philly-Dude , Michael Campos / Unsplash Report

#21

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes A huge home with absolutely nothing in it except a small desk and computer, and a queen sized bed. Must have been a $900k-million dollar home, and it had a Jaguar in the garage. I was there to babysit their dog, a lovely Ascob Cocker Spaniel who adored tennis balls and I only roamed the house on the last day of their vacation to report that the pup was indeed a very good girl who left no messes.

On the flip side, I also babysat a Golden Retriever and Golden Doodle in a home to hoarders. It was beyond awful.

LilSis279 , rawpixel Report

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LakotaWolf (she/her)
Community Member
8 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Heh, OP knows their dogs/dog breeds. ASCOB stands for "any solid color other than black" and it's a technical term for coat color XD So the Cocker was solid-colored, SOME color other than black XD

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#22

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes Used to do construction sales and would be in a handful of houses every week. Weirdest for me was the number of preppers—we’re talking basements piled with emergency food in buckets, guns everywhere, stockpiles of wood and random supplies. At least one house a week would be like that. Still makes me look at people differently.

letattitude , istolethetv / Flickr Report

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ElvenFairy
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'll be honest, if I lived in the US, I'd probably do the same, we'll probably minus the guns. With the amount of extreme weather that happens I would want to know my family could still eat.

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#23

Summer 1997 working for a moving company for the summer. Old head mover guy says to me "the kinky s**t is always in the instrument cases." We carried a bunch of stuff up to the master BR, he pops a trombone case....no trombone but cuffs, d****s, v*******s, VHS p**n. That guy knew the way.

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#24

Service Technician here. Been to this guy’s apartment unit where the carpet has been torn off, revealing the plywood. Windows were covered up by old cardboards that looks to be years old and breaking apart. Drywall behind the kitchen sink torn down. Sink filled with dirty moldy dishes. 5 gallon buckets filled with grease/mold. Stove pulled out and is in the middle of the kitchen. Feces on the floor. Kitty litter box…. This dude has no pet and the unit smelled like a*s.

Drove by the unit a few months later to see that it’s getting remodeled. Looks like that tenant got evicted. Crazy thing is, he drove a Hell Cat when it was first introduced and also had a Harley. He seems pretty sane and dressed casually. Would never imagined someone like that living in a dump… wait… I’ve seen dumpsters cleaner than this guy’s apartment.

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#25

Honestly during my time I don’t recall seeing anything “weird” but I saw things that appalled me. Like a sweet cat being so obese he couldn’t even stand. And just crazy levels of filth. These were very wealthy people too with extremely nice homes. 

One home had gross black marks ALL OVER every single wall. I asked what it was and was told it was dog slobber from their dog shaking his head and slinging it everywhere. And they didn’t even require us to clean it, they just live with dog slobber on the walls. .

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#26

We are auctioneers. We went to a house once where there was no water. The back porch was filled with five gallon buckets that were what he used as a toilet. The house was going to be put on the market. I have no idea what they did with all those buckets. We did not do an auction.

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#27

Locked bedroom of wall-to-wall shelves and bins full of a large collection of dolls. Mainly the kind that they make horror movies about.

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#28

Oh man I delivered and installed artwork and many clients were mega wealthy. One guy had a huge property that would make Alex jones drool. It had an actual alter with two stone pillars covered in plastic and a huge pyramid built out of stones from the area. Either the guy thought it was funny or he was top tier Illuminati. Not making this up.

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TheBlueBitterfly
Community Member
8 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A house on my street, like 3 houses up, has their entire yard covered in statuettes of Hesus, Mary, various saints. Not so bad, but they're each enclosed in their own "house" of clear plastic to prevent damage, all lighted from the interior but then large spotlights on each one. I've seen less icons in a catholic church.

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#30

Cleaned in a house one time, couple in their 30s or 40s, lower middle class, nothing fancy. They had multiple framed, signed, gold/platinum albums by the band, Train. No other bands, just, Train.

Also the garage had a bunch crop dusting signs and posters. I distinctly remember a yellow diamond crossing sign, 'Crop Duster Crossing' with a plane spraying gas.

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#31

I used to do white glove tech delivery. One guy, probably 50’s was super chill and nice. But I walk in and his living room set up was two industrial massage chairs like you used to see in malls, a massive tv, and two Santa mannequins, one white and one black. In his dinning room he had three old Fredrick’s Of Hollywood mannequins with giant fake b***s and wigs on, as well as two other random store mannequins. He told me he collects mannequins.

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#32

Couple years back we found a child coffin in an attic behind a kneewall that had no door leading to it. Same year another woman had the blanks for a child coffin in her deceased husbands workshop.

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#33

“The Carpet Was Just Like Squish Squish Squish”: 30 Wild Things Workers Saw In Clients’ Homes When I was a Poolman, I walked through a backyard to a pool once and saw the owner clapping his wife via my peripherals.

I came at the same day of the week, same time for over a year, so I don't think it was accidental.

Got a great bonus that Christmas.

Random_Inseminator , Marco Verch/ Flickr Report

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#34

A sensory deprivation coffin-like thing. Florida is weird.

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#35

Interior designer - did a consult for a fine artist - every single wall was covered (12ft ceilings) with oil paintings of barely-legal girls with their legs open. Stacked against the walls - 4-5 deep. Every.single one. Had their legs spread. He had skills but damn….

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