9 Crazy Things People Found Inside Their Walls
Babies
In 1850, a mummified baby tumbled out from between the walls of a Parisian apartment. The couple living in the apartment were charged with murder; they were later cleared when a physician used insects to determine the time of death. This case marked the first time in French forensic science that entomology was used in a criminal trial. And 28 years later, French pathologist Edmond Perrier Megnin used insects to calculate the time of death of a mummified infant in a similar case.
Mummified infants have been found in walls as recently as 2007, when contractor Bob Kinghorn discovered the body of a child wrapped in newspaper in the walls of a home in East Toronto. Police investigated the infant’s death but were unable to determine the cause.
Live Children
Two years after he disappeared with his mother, 6-year-old Richard Chekevdia was discovered hidden in the walls of his grandmother’s home in Illinois.
Ricky disappeared in 2007 after a contentious custody dispute between his mother, Shannon Wilfong, and his father, Michael Chekevdia. His grandmother, Diane Dobbs, insists that the boy lived most of his life outside the walls of the home, only hiding when necessary. However, police reports state the boy had rarely been allowed outside. And a judge found that the boy had been denied access to medical care, education and contact with his peers. The police found the boy and his mother crouched in a hiding place behind a bedroom dresser.
Cash
In Ohio, contractor Bob Kitts found $182,000 in Depression-era money inside the walls of a bathroom he was renovating. The contractor called the homeowner, Amanda Reece, who offered him 10 percent of the find. He demanded 40 percent and the situation devolved from there.
When the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on the case, descendants of the home’s original owner, Patrick Dunne — a wealthy businessman who hid the money during the Great Depression — also filed claim to the money. After the costly court proceedings, all of the people laying claim to the money received only a fraction of the find.
Cats
The practice of hiding cats in walls was an ancient ritual to ward off evil spirits. All over the UK, mummified cats are frequently toppling out from between the walls of 17th and 18th century buildings. One of the most famous instances was in Pendle, Lancashire, when a mummified cat was discovered in the wall of an ancient cottage. The cottage is presumed to be the location at which one of England’s most famous witch covens met. In 1612, 11 men and one woman from the coven were accused of witchcraft and hanged.
Hidden Cameras
Imagine you're living in a nice rental house in a suburban neighborhood with your significant other. Everything's going great, until you see a warning about your landlord on a rental forum site, alerting potential tenants that he's been known to secretly monitor intimate moments via hidden cameras. You search your home, and discover there is not one, not two, but multiple cameras hidden within the walls, light fixtures and smoke detectors, and that furthermore all these devices are connected to a shed near your house that only your landlord can access.
That's exactly what happened to a couple in Sydney, Australia in April 2016. Their landlord, Masaaki Imaeda, had set up his shed as a personal entertainment cave. He had a leather recliner, a footrest, and a television, where he watched the couple shower, get dressed, have sex—you name it. When they made this horrifying discovery, the couple alerted authorities and promptly arrested Imaeda. The property owner "pleaded guilty to multiple charges of using an optical device without consent and observing a person in private without consent to obtain sexual arousal," according to Candace Sutton of news.com.au.
Imaeda was sentenced to 17 months in prison for his crimes.
A Live Korean Missile
While remodeling his bathroom in April 2011, a St. Francis, Wisconsin, resident discovered a 20-inch-long Korean missile with a 5-inch explosive head inside his wall. He and his wife carried the missile outside and phoned the police. The bomb squad was then brought in to detonate the bomb. Neighbors told the couple the previous owner had served in both World War II and the Korean War and liked to bring souvenirs home. How the missile ended up inside the bathroom wall, and why it was live, will likely never be known.
Hanging Little Green Army Men
From a redditor whose username has been deleted: "My dad found a bunch of green army men tied up hanging in his wall. They were doing renovations and decided to knock down a wall. Underneath the plaster, in the space between the two plaster pieces, there were dozens, dozens of green army men, tied around their necks with string hanging down. "Bonus: In the backyard they found several buried doll heads. Old ones too, they were porcelain. Not all the dolls, just the heads."
400 Barrels Of Toxic Waste
An Ontario man found 400 barrels of toxic waste hidden behind the walls of his property in February 2017. According to a report from CHCH, the owner had already discovered 400 barrels containing dangerous, cancer-causing substances before knocking out the wall in question and revealing the additional 400 (that's a total of 800 barrels). The building's previous owner, John Currie, once operated a tar product business at the location, and apparently had a record for inappropriate waste disposal.
A Secret Corridor Contaminated with Toxic Black Mold
In November 2011, after moving aside an old bookcase in their new home, the Brown family of Greenville, South Carolina, discovered a secret corridor. Hoping for perhaps buried treasure, the couple instead found a note inside. It read: "You Found It! Hello. If you’re reading this, then you found the secret room. I owned this house for a short while and it was discovered to have a serious mold problem. One that actually made my children very sick to the point that we had to move out..." The note went on to invite the new homeowners to get in touch with the man who wrote the note, which the Browns did. However, history did repeat itself, as the house and its mold problem made them sick as well, forcing them to leave. Fortunately, the family was able to get their money back.
