Over the past 30 years, Action Storage has helped hundreds of schools and other organisations install brand new storage lockers, and they've seen all sorts of weird and wonderful things removed from old units in the process. There have so many stories of the bizarre things left behind in self-storage units - including Burt Reynolds entire collection of memorabilia - so they began to ponder what the strangest things left in the humble locker were. Here is what they found:
A Homemade Bomb?
After the recent incident involving Ahmed Mohamed, the student arrested for bringing a clock into school, it will come as no surprise that many institutions are touchy about potential bomb threats.
Such fears took an interesting turn earlier this year at Bayside High School, New York. The fire department and bomb squad were notified when a small fire was observed coming from a suspicious device in a first-floor locker. Students were evacuated and stood outside for several hours while the bomb squad investigated the threat.
So what was the cause of all this mayhem? It seems a student had put together a homemade phone charger from a couple of batteries and some wiring. Turns out that this is not such a great idea.
A Ball Python
In 2010, Ed Reardon, a custodian at Newton North High School, was cleaning out some old school lockers when a three-foot-long snake fell at his feet. At first, he didn’t think it was real, but as it coiled up for an attack, he managed to grab the snake behind the head and carry it off to a local pet store.
Reardon was told that the snake he’d brought in was a Ball python, one of the most popular pet snake breeds in the U.S. Whether it was a disgruntled owner looking for a way to dispose of an unwanted pet, or an end of school prank, is unknown. Either way, it’s not exactly what you’d hope to find during some routine cleaning.
Termites
When checking on a bank deposit locker, you might not be too surprised to find your valuables whisked away by a gang of thieves; in which case, you’d feel quite at ease ordering your bank to cough up some compensation. Well this is precisely what Ms. Kanak Choudhary asked of the Union Bank of India back in 1998, only in her case, the thieves were a horde of termites.
The voracious insects had munched through currency notes worth Rs. 56,500 (£550), as well as damaging certificates and jewellery. Choudhary lodged a complaint immediately and demanded compensation. She was ignored by the bank for the best part of a year until a court finally ordered them to pay up.
A Corpse
After all the gruesome things uncovered in self-storage units, it shouldn’t be too surprising that lockers have held a few horrors of their own. Earlier this year, an employee at Tokyo Station opened an abandoned suitcase, left in an open coin locker, to find the decomposing body of an elderly woman.
The suitcase had remained unclaimed for a month before finally being opened, but no one had noticed anything unusual about it. The first clue was an abnormal odour as the suitcase was opened and then a glimpse of human hair. The police said the body appeared to be a female aged between 70 and 90. There was no evidence of external wounds, leading some to claim that the act may have been to avoid costly Japanese funeral fees.
Gold and Cash
If the last entry had you determined to avoid public lockers at all costs, this final entry might make you reconsider. A school in Ahmedabad, India, were cleaning lockers as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ‘Clean India’ campaign when they came across 10 million rupees (£100,000) in cash and 21 solid gold bars, worth around £50,000.
The lockers had been unassigned for at least two to three years, so it remains a complete mystery who the fortune belongs to. The police questioned staff and teachers, as well as publicising the case, but still no one has come forward. Smugglers have been caught attempting to move gold through the city in the past to avoid high customs duty, but the school principal ruled out the possibility of outsiders, claiming the entire school campus is kept under his close supervision.