The Strangest Storage Finds of All Time

Many self storage users utilise units for their belongings, such as furniture or old clothing in the event of moving house or simply when they require a little extra space at home. Businesses even use self storage for stock and old office equipment, but what happens when you forget about your unit and all of the wonders inside?

Things are very different here in the UK, but with American storage companies, if you get behind on storage payments, you will often find your unit goes to auction and is sold to the highest bidder. With many auctions happening across the US, there have certainly been some interesting finds!

In this article, we uncover some of the strangest and craziest items found in self storage.

The spy who left his car

Paying only $100 at a blind auction, a New York couple found themselves in ownership of a 1976 Esprit sports car that had been abandoned in an old storage unit. You might think they had hit the jackpot at this point, but that was only the beginning.

After loading the car on the back of a moving truck, a passing stranger told the couple he recognised the unique vehicle as one of the eight created for the 1977 James Bond film ‘’The Spy Who Loved Me’’, well-known and loved as the submarine bond car or ‘Wet Nellie’. The car was soon restored and toured many museums before it was purchased by Elon Musk in 2013 for a whopping $1,000,000 – you could say it was an impressive investment!

To this day, no one knows how the missing car ended up in an abandoned storage unit, but it certainly was a fantastic find.

A stolen superhero

In 2011, a man in California purchased a unit without knowing what he’d discover, and anyone who is a big fan of comic book culture would have squealed at the sight. There, in plain sight, was the first original Superman comic, but that wasn’t the end of the excitement. The comic was a stolen copy from Hollywood star Nicholas Cage in 2000 during a house burglary, who purchased it for $1,000,000 in 1995.

The comic book was hidden for ten years, and after taking it to a dealer to get valued, Cage was soon discovered as the true owner, which was incredibly unlucky for the new owner, since the comic had increased in value from the $150,000 Cage originally paid for it and eventually sold for $2,000,000.

A missing leg

Moving on to a more gory find, this is also one of the most peculiar items found in self storage. After purchasing a storage unit at auction, Shannon Whisnant was the proud new owner of a new barbeque smoker – but this was not as it initially seemed.

As he opened the smoker, he quickly discovered that he was now also the owner of a real human leg! After calling the police, the story hit the local news leading the owner to come forward. John Wood had lost his leg in a plane crash that sadly killed his father, and he had the leg embalmed as a unique momentum. Sadly, the leg was lost in storage due to Wood falling behind on his storage payments.

The strange story somehow got even weirder. The police soon took the leg to a funeral home, but Whisnant very much wanted to keep the leg – it turns out he was charging adults and children a fee to come and see the leg in all its glory! Understandably shocked by the interesting scheme, Wood and Whisnant ended up in a televised legal battle with TV Judge Greg Mathis eventually returning the leg to its rightful owner.

Exclusive tunes

Arguably one of the greatest pop artists of all time, Michael Jackson had many hits that had fans across the globe buzzing for every release, but little did they know he had plenty more songs to share before and after his death.

Over 250 unreleased tracks were found inside a storage unit previously belonging to MJ’s father, Joe Jackson, including exclusive duets recorded with the brilliant Tina Turner, and tunes owned by no one other than Michael himself due to a gap in recording contracts. This meant that record labels couldn’t claim the find, which is expected to be worth millions, so you could consider this investor a… smooth criminal.

Store your belongings with Apex Self Storage

While you can’t store anything too crazy in our units at Apex Self Storage, there is plenty you can store that makes day-to-day life that little bit easier and far less cluttered. Get in touch with us today to discover more about the options we provide and the items found in self storage.