Some customers find truly terrifying or bizarre items on their forays into the thrift store world, and they are sharing them in an online forum. Here are ten weird and woeful discoveries from the thread.
1. Blood-Stained Magazine
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A commenter found a vintage Life Magazine in a local thrift store. Upon arriving home after securing a bargain deal, he discovered something nasty.
"A couple of pages covered in a deep dark-red substance I was sure was someone's blood," says the mortified poster. When he took the mag back, the owner shared a heartbreaking story of how a store robber fatally shot his cat, which must have been sleeping on the magazine.
2. Fifty Shades of Grim
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A woman recounts her horror upon finding a 19th-century secret diary with three years' worth of hedonistic, lustful abuse witnessed at a local judge's house.
The process involved prisoners' escaping from jails, then becoming the plaything for a group of sadistic tycoons, who would "delight for hours and sometimes days in prolonged tortures" before ending the victims' lives. Talk about terrifying.
3. South Pacific Depravity
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A Pennslyvania resident describes how he found a photo album at an auction house belonging to a U.S. soldier who served in the South Pacific during World War Two. "The first few pages were mostly snaps of various friends and acquaintances," says our contributor. However, as he went deeper, images of mutilated Japanese casualties began to appear. "You could almost feel the PTSD," recalls the shellshocked collector.
4. Dr. Seuss Disrespect
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Another book lover found a mint-condition, original copy of The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins at a major American thrift chain. To his distress, he found the sales sticker directly on the front cover, which destroyed the acetate dust cover. In his subsequent rage, he showed the manager they had ruined a "$50.00 to $100.00 highly collectible book."
5. Frankenstein's Radioactive Monster
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Someone discovered a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein at a Rhode Island thrift store, only to find a worrying bookmark. "It was a form a worker would fill out before entering a high radiation area," comments the excited writer. "The previous owner worked with radioactive materials!"
6. Grandfather's War Medals
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Years ago, my parents had a break-in. We had recently lost my grandfather, whose military medals and sporting awards went missing in the burglary. However, a few months later, my mom was rummaging through a local thrift store. She gasped when something looked back at her from the ornaments shelf — my grandpa's war medals.
7. Thrift Femme Fatale
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Candor is eminent with this young lady, who shares the worst thing she ever found at a thrift store: her ex-spouse, who worked in a thrift store where they first met. The commenter sums it up: "I kinda miss the adrenaline rush of sleeping next to something that could take your life in an instant."
8. A 19th-Century Tragedy
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This thread member laments finding a vintage novel where he discovered a newspaper clipping about an eight-year-old boy's farming accident. "He died from accidentally running into a piece of farm machinery," adds the regretful commenter.
9. Goodwill Hunting
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In a "startling" encounter, a bereaved widower says he donated his late wife's clothes to Goodwill, including her iconic red rain jacket. A week later, he looked across the shop floor and saw it hanging there, bright red, his wife's memory still raw. "For a split second, I thought about buying it back," he admits.
10. His Dark Materials
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Finally, in an ironic twist, our last discussion member recalls being in a thrift store only to see the Satanic Bible staring back at him. "In a Christian-run thrift store," he adds. "In the Religion section. Yeah, that was weird." Maybe this was the point? Did they want to catch someone out, or were they teaching customers a lesson that evil lurks in mysterious places?
10 Coolest Things People Found In Thrift Stores
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Are you looking to snag a good deal or maybe a rare find not typical to Walmart and Costco shelves? Join the league of thrift store lovers who have found the coolest things in the most unforgettable of thrift marketplaces. Rare paintings, vintage clothing, and Renaissance-era furniture have been found in thrift racks, and here are a few thrift store finds by real people that will make your jaw drop.
10 Coolest Things People Found in Thrift Stores
What is your most awkward thrift store discovery?
The thread inspired this post.
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