That’s Not Sand
Goodwill and other local thrift shops are places where people can donate their used or unwanted items. Store employees then go through the donations to get rid of items that are dirty, broken, or simply worthless (like old TVs, or puzzles with missing pieces). Most of the time, thrift store donations are run-of-the-mill articles, like hand-me-down purses or old pairs of shoes.
On rare occasions though, people donate more desirable items. Cold-hard cash (mostly by mistake), or old, ugly lamps or rugs, not realizing they’re worth thousands of dollars. And then, some donations get a little strange- murder weapons, dirty diapers, or urns full of human ashes. Here are some of the stranger Goodwill donation stories you’ll ever hear…
No Bank Account
I was a receiving and loading lead at a thrift store for a few years. We had this guy that cleaned out storage units for a living, and he’d dump whatever he couldn’t flip with us for a tax slip. He pulls up, and we’re going through it all. It was pretty nice stuff, and it looked like it was from an estate sale.
We get it all unloaded and start snooping through to see what needed to get brought to where, and we find this green glass vase filled with sand. I started pouring the sand out into the trash so we could figure out if the vase was worth using. “That’s not sand.” Somehow we ended up with an unmarked, full urn. Reddit User: l3esitos
The Creepy Homeless Man
In college, I was one of the people that directly sorted donations. I’ve seen it all on the job. On more than one occasion, we have found large amounts of money stashed away in hollowed-out books, usually $1,000+ in new bills. How do you forget about that amount of money, or why were you hiding that? No bank account, we guess…
There is another story from my time working there that comes to mind. eThe one that sticks out the most was this middle-aged man who consistently came on Saturday evenings to donate used underwear. Bags and bags of men’s used underwear, for almost three months straight, and then, suddenly, he just stopped. It was so weird, and we just threw them away each time. Reddit User: franz23
People Don’t Know The Worth
When I was about sixteen, I worked at Goodwill for six months. There was this old homeless man who used to try and sneak inside to sleep and stuff like that. Every day he’d get kicked out pretty quick by one of my female coworkers. After about a month of working there with her, the homeless man came up to the counter she was working at…
He gave her a Target bag filled with rocks and left. We open the bag and find a doll underneath a layer of rocks. It was so creepy. The doll looked exactly like her. We flipped it over, and the back had her full name sewn into it. She quit a couple of days later because she was worried about that homeless man coming back to the store. Reddit User: McNifficence
An Anniversary Present
I manage a thrift store in Nor-cal that supports a cat rescue organization. We get strange donations all the time. Some of these include ashes. I have a bag here in my office that has some guy from Florida in it. I keep him around, and he wards off ghosts and angry customers. I’ve also found printed money in one of the deliveries.
One time, someone dropped off a backpack full of obviously copied money on big sheets of paper. Secret service came out and got it and everything. We get lots of interesting old stuff—a Victorian cat collar, a 1800s French tapestry, old Sears magazines, vintage records. We recently got a set of dishes that commemorated a state university, and someone bought them for $900. Reddit User: Killmour_
When You Accidentally Donate Your Pet
My boyfriend volunteered at a local thrift shop for a little while. He would come back every day telling me about the crazy and weird things they had found in the donation boxes that day. One day, he was going through donation boxes and found a peculiar ceramic mission with liquid in it. He decided to investigate it further.
After a little research, it turned out to be 30-year-old Christian Brother’s brandy. Only 100 bottles were made in celebration for their anniversary. Since the thrift store can’t sell liquor, he was able to snag it. The brandy was so good, and we cherished each sip we took from that bottle. It’s not always junk they get in donations clearly. Reddit User: eesaray
The Runway Donation
I had so many weird donations that I won’t even get into because you won’t believe me, but the strangest time was when a young man donated a bag of clothes and then a small gecko hopped out. We were honestly all lost at what to do about the little guy until the donor swings back about one hour later looking kind of frantic.
He was asking if we had seen his lizard. We kindly showed him where it took up residence under the porch used for smoking, and we never saw either of them again. Another time a woman dropped off a wedding dress and an accordion with no explanation, but she seemed rather upset. What a weird job that used to be. Reddit User: GeniusToker
The Two Hidden Envelopes
One day, a Russian lady came in with about six gorgeous evening gowns. She kept saying she’d had them since she was young—when she lived in Russia—and that they were high-end/designer dresses. From my own knowledge of sewing/dressmaking, I can tell you these things were exquisite. I was working with the books, but I managed to get a good look at them.
The seams were breathtakingly neat. Hand-embellished with beads, crystals, and hand-embroidered details on some, they’d clearly been taken care of well too, as the colors weren’t faded or discolored, and she’d even brought them to the shop in garment bags. She said she’d brought them in because she was well past wearing them, and she wanted some young woman to get to ‘experience the joy of wearing them.’ Reddit User: apkmIRE
When You’re So Naive
I’m a manager at a large chain thrift store, and this story is from when I was a pricer, meaning I priced the clothing before it went to the sales floor. It’s pretty normal to find a small amount of cash in a pocket every so often, but one day, I was pricing a blazer, and I checked inside the inner pockets—as you do—and found two envelopes with Chinese characters on them full of $1,000 cash each.
Inside the same blazer, we found a rubber-banded stack of, like, 25 credit cards/rewards cards and an expensive-looking watch. We tried to contact the guy, but his phone was disconnected. I think he probably died, and some family members just donated all his stuff without checking it. Anyway, I only got to keep $300 of it, but hey, that’s $300 richer than I was before. Reddit User: bears-n-beets-
Santa Forgot This Delivery
I was so naive when I started working at a thrift shop, thinking everyone was playing jokes on me. But over the five years I worked there, I saw it all. Ashes, weapons, we even got a box of someone’s personal files. It was all her records for plastic surgery with her credit card details and SIN number. Everything. The most memorable moment was…
When a very elderly worker priced a huge bong as a vase and put it out on the sales floor. I heard some kid was really happy to buy it for $3; the cashier told everyone after he sold it. We found a 9K ring in the pocket of a jacket from one of the deliveries and more jewelry stashed in the clothing pocket. Shows some families never look at the stuff. Reddit User: throughtheruins
Donating Without Permission
I have found many unopened Christmas gifts. I once found the Falcon Medallion, the highest honor bestowed upon Icelandic people by the president. Illegal weapons are sometimes donated as well. I once discovered a pair of LC-1 chairs designed by Le Corbusier and valued at about $4,000 each. The serial number dated them three years old. Dentures are also not uncommon.
We also got refrigerators and freezers that stink up the entire shop if opened for a second or two. We’ve had unlocked computers and hard drives with lots of private photos and videos. Some people apparently like to donate their loved one’s ashes. We’ve had pet cages donated with the dead pet still inside, once a parrot and once a hamster. Come on people. Reddit User: Alliat
The Most Expensive Piece Of Wood
I was a manager at a local nonprofit that gives away donated items for free. It’s basically Goodwill, but you can just take what you want. Each shopper has a limit of clothes/toys/books etc. they can take per person in the household per month. I had a woman come in super annoyed and just started unloading the back of her minivan.
There were tools, a wedding dress, radios, instruments, and tons of valuable items. She told me that her husband told her he wanted a divorce after so-many-years of marriage, and she was angry, so she was donating all his stuff. I was then annoyed because I couldn’t donate this guy’s stuff without his permission, so I had to find a spot to store all this stuff and hope he would come here to find it. Reddit User: Plooza
Deep-Frying In Ashes
I worked at Goodwill for a short time. It wasn’t exactly a “cool” thing we couldn’t sell, but nevertheless, it was a funny story. One of my fellow employees was telling me about how someone donated a piece of wood, or I should say, left a piece of wood. As a joke, she put a price tag on it for…
It was priced for $10,000 and said it was a piece from Noah’s Ark. Strangely enough, someone seriously believed it and wanted to buy it. Needless to say, management wasn’t happy and quickly removed it and threw it away. I was amazed at this person’s willingness to believe this random piece of wood was part of the Ark. Reddit User: _Twas_Ere_
Doubles As A Garbage Dump
I worked at Lake Austin Goodwill here in Austin, Texas. One day, I was sorting donations, and someone had donated a very nice ornate wooden box with pretty inlay. I turned over the box to look for a maker’s mark so I could price it appropriately and poof. Ashes fell all over me. Lots of ashes. Yes, those kinds of ashes.
I’d like to think it was just the forgotten remains of a once-beloved pet, but it was way too large a quantity of ashes to just be a dog. Someone had most likely, and hopefully unknowingly, donated grandma’s cremated remains, which were now literally coating me like some sort of satanic deep-frying batter. Needless to say, I requested to go home early. Reddit User: pavelshum
A Music Lover’s Treasure Find
I worked at Value Village as a teenager. I can’t think of anything really crazy. Sad stuff, though. A woman who I guess had alcoholism and died. Photo albums, antidepressants, mail, basically just garbage. Sometimes what to me seemed like loads of laundry, just obscenely dirty clothes, like someone just didn’t want to do their laundry. That was a wild place to work.
I would often argue with people who would dump literal garbage at the donation center because they were moving or whatever, and they wanted to get rid of it. After a long weekend was the worst. The whole parking lot would be covered in garbage. They’ve put up a gate now since I left. It would have saved me a lot of time if it had been there when I was still working. Reddit User: tedcruziszodiac
Multiple Figures
I found the first edition of a book of Beethoven’s letters by Dr. Nohl from the 1800s. Nohl was a scholar on Beethoven, Mozart, music, and history. His books went through a lot of prints, and during his era, he was a very celebrated author. Bear in mind, this doesn’t mean I own the physical copies of Beethoven’s letters; rather this is just a collection of them in a book.
Come to think of it, I also once found a Mozart Lladro figurine for $25; I don’t think the owner of that particular store knew how much it was worth in mint condition with the box and paperwork. As a huge fan of Mozart, I just had to get it. I also found a Lladro owl for $5. It was a complete steal. Reddit User: SuperBreakfast
The Magic Carpet Ride
I’m not a Goodwill worker, but I buy from their online auction site. People find things like an old watch in Grandpa’s dresser drawer—no strap and not running, so they chucked it into the Goodwill box. Turns out to be a rare Rolex and sold for five figures. Same thing with old 35mm cameras. The names Leica and Rolleiflex mean nothing to them….
But I’ve seen some old Leicas, early rangefinder Canons, go for four figures. A weird one was a piece of PYREX cookware. In case you didn’t know, the “good” Pyrex is in all caps while the new, mediocre stuff is lower-case. Anyway, this dish was part of a small, limited edition run that was never issued to the public. Folks went crazy over that thing, selling in the mid-four-figures. Reddit User: dave_890
A Box Of Human Teeth
I’ve never worked at one of these places, but I have a cool story that a plumber told me. This guy bought a rug from a thrift store. He unrolled it in the store just enough to see the pattern then brought it home. He propped it up in the corner and kind of forgot about it. Then one day, a few months later, he got in the mood for home improvement.
He cleaned, rearranged his house, and then went out to his garage and plopped the rug down. He grabbed the corners and pulled like he was throwing a sheet over a bed. When he did, $10,000 fluttered through the air. I don’t know why no one had unrolled this rug through its travels, but that is some comeuppance. Reddit User: Jellyfish_Princess
The Drug Drop
I once found a box that had human teeth in it. Not just baby teeth. Adult human teeth. I also found a full-on tomahawk with animal jaw decoration on it and about 20 LOTR rings. I’ve also seen many cursed looking dolls. I’ve also come across a lot of limited edition Mickey Mouse watches, some of which could fetch quite a bit of money.
That’s not even half the weird stuff we got. I found an Aquaman shirt, but the face was some random Asian man’s face superimposed on it. I’ve also found a lot of daggers for some reason. There was a pair of men’s custom-painted Dragon Ball Z boots that were donated, too. These would have been great for a true fan. Reddit User: stanleysteamers
Calling The Cops
Back in 2014, I was recently employed by the Goodwill of Southwestern PA. I was working the donation door with my little highlighter green t-shirt when a pickup truck with stupidly high suspension pulls up about 10 feet away. Out jumps an overweight elderly man with the air of a crazed hermit. He had grey hair that appeared as though he was the leading face of Duck Dynasty.
This man barely says a word past “Hi!” and proceeds to take from the back of his truck a plushie stuffed unicorn, an outdoor portable toilet, and a rusty saw. He clambers back into the driver’s seat of his mountainous automobile. I went in to tell my manager. When I got back out, the portable toilet was gone. My manager suspected it might have been some kind of drug drop. Reddit User: tarkus9
An Employee Steal
This happened a week before I started there. Two of the girls in the back were going through a box from the night before that had been left at the back door. It had baggies of weed and some pills in it. Needless to say, the cops were called. Also, one time, an unused shotgun shell fell out of a shirt in the clothes sorting room.
These were racks that got sent to us from our plant, the cops were called, and they put it as part of some investigation with the shirt. Also, my second week there, someone left a bunch of kid toys outside that smelled terrible. We had to deal with it for two days until our dumpster could be emptied on Monday; one coworker of mine threw up while picking them up to toss on a nice, humid summer Monday. Reddit User: snackfood109
A Win-Win Situation
Some very old and very sweet lady had some standard donations in trash bags in the front of her car. She then proceeded to open the trunk and reveal a fully decked out custom main gear PC. Now I estimated the price of this bad boy to be about $3,000 at the time it was made, and its age to be about four to five years old judging by the parts.
I kept asking her if it was something she wanted to donate. I told her my price estimate, and she insisted we keep it. I took it to the store manager and explained that I was a computer nerd and wanted to buy it. After proving to her that, in its current state, it wouldn’t work, she let me buy it for $30, and for the cost of an SSD, a CPU fan, and heatsink, I got it up and running for a total of around $200. Reddit User: blugil
Wash Before You Wear
In 2007, I worked at Value Village as the guy who actually accepted the donations at the back door. My favorite was when someone donated a PS2 Slim and a GameCube. And whoever did the pricing that day way underpriced. I got the Playstation for $25, and my roommate grabbed the GameCube for $20. They were both over $100 used at Gamestop.
Someone also donated a VirtualBoy once. We set it up in the back and took turns playing it that weekend. It wasn’t a donation really, but one time, someone stole jeans and left their old, dirty ones hanging on the rack. But they forgot their meth and accompanying paraphernalia in the pocket too, so we had to call the police. Reddit User: IndianaGnomes
Be Careful Of Opening Bags
I’ve been to the Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center a total of four times. All donations are sorted by the men and women in the rehab program as part of “Work Therapy” Monday through Friday, and everyone starts in clothing then moves around to linen or bric-a-brac, etc. Things I’ve found or that have been found while I was there include…
I found a loaded 38 special, marijuana, methamphetamines, family pictures/photo albums, dead animals, mint condition prohibition-era prescriptions for whiskey (inside a book), and just really weird clothes and toys. Also, most of the clothes come unwashed and don’t get washed before being sent to the stores, so wash anything you buy from a thrift store before you wear it. Reddit User: TamaskanRanger
The Discovery Of The Stolen Chair
I worked at a charity store. I once found an interesting looking bag with this hole that looked like there might have been space for a spy camera to look through. It also had a chain attached to it. I guess I pulled the chain out of curiosity, and all of a sudden, this bright orange plume of smoke seeped out of the hole.
Next thing you know, the whole place is engulfed in this smoke. Turns out it was some sort of bag people would put cash in, and it had this ‘security system’ attached to it and would dye all the money that was inside of it if someone tried to steal it. Let’s just say the whole place was a bright shade orange for a while. Reddit User: jessiehailey
It Was A Movie Moment
I used to work at one of those big truck trailer donation centers they put in mall parking lots. The “top” donations I received were dirty disposable diapers and a shopping bag of random puzzle pieces from multiple different puzzles. I also came across an original Frank Lloyd Wright office chair worth $11,000 that had been stolen from the University of Idaho several years before.
That was a really amazing thing to find. Anyone else would have just thought it was a normal chair, but I was a Frank Lloyd Wright fan, so I recognized the style and did my research. Sadly, we couldn’t keep the chair; otherwise, I might have bought it. It was returned to the university, I think. How do you even steal a chair without being noticed? Reddit User: tenkei
A Set Of Disney Portraits
I don’t work there, but I visit my local thrift store at least twice a week and have a great story to share. About eight months ago, I was strolling down the aisles of the local thrift store when I saw a children’s jewelry box/music box that looked like an exact replica of one that I had as a kid. It had ballerinas on it and played the same song that mine did.
I opened it up, and on the bottom corner of the soft material inside the box, I saw a tiny signature. It said my name. The way the letters were written left no doubt in my mind that this was the same music box from when I was a kid. I bought it for a dollar and brought it home. It now sits on my bookshelf. It was honestly like a moment out of a movie. Reddit User: wanderingaroundmars
A Desk And An iPad
I’ve worked at my local thrift store for the last four or five months. In no particular order, here are some things I’ve seen. The first was handmade leather arm gauntlets that fit me perfectly—I ended up buying these for myself. I also found two or three folders of someone’s college information from the 1960s, including ACT scores, colleges applied to, and old essays.
I found a glass Star Wars Funko Pop salt shaker. One day, I unpacked a hunting knife with a carved inscription “I am a friend of men and the scourge of evil” in Portuguese or Spanish. There was also a Ted Cruz coloring book. Strangely, there was a frame that contained two large M&M packages and framed pin-up portraits of Disney princes. Reddit User: qynntessence
Going To A Good Home
I had to do community service when I got my DUI, so I chose to volunteer at Goodwill. I love thrift stores and was excited at the possibility of maybe finding something valuable, unique, or antique. Nope. And it’s never going to happen. One time we got a desk with an iPad inside. It was obviously left inside by mistake as it was a brand new iPad.
The manager kept it. It was also common to find valuables like gold jewelry; a Rolex; cash left in wallets, pockets, or purses; LV and other brand name purses; etc. Those things never make it out on the floor, obviously. The managers and workers scoop that stuff right up. I can’t tell you how many times the workers would argue over things that came in. Reddit User: thehotmegan
Back In The 90s
I did community service at a Christian shop that donated to rehab clinics in a wealthy part of town once. The weirdest thing we got was one of those gaming chairs with the built-in headphone jack and mini-equalizer, the kind that sits on the floor. No power supply. That model was going for $150 new, and this was selling for $25, so I bought that sucker.
There was a lot of broken IKEA furniture, a vintage radio with unsafely exposed wiring, and some creepy ’50s Santa shelf ornaments that looked like Pennywise got busy with Mrs. Claus. And a motorized wheelchair. That one felt good to sell because the buyer’s wife had just come home from an accident. I put on my best customer service persona while I was there. Reddit User: Deastrumquodvicis
A Real Love Story
In 1994, the old lady across the street from my mom’s place had all her grown children and their children assist in cleaning out her basement of her late husband’s junk that he had acquired in life. I actually got a few good things, including a Sansui 7 stereo system from the 70s. Oh, and there were several suitcases filled with encyclopedia sets as the deceased was once an encyclopedia salesman.
I took one that was complete in an unlocked suitcase and one in a locked suitcase. I ended up throwing away the 1974 edition of Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias less than a year later due to how out of date most of the info was. I still think I should have kept them because there could have been a collector out there who might have bought them for big money. Reddit User: titan511
When You Think You’ve Scored A Bag Of Legos
There’s nothing I haven’t seen come through the thrift shop. But by far, my favorite was a box of love letters between a couple written in the 60s. I could tell they were young and weren’t able to be together for a while—what ended up being years. A couple of letters to the end, they spoke about how they couldn’t wait to be together again.
The last letter ended with, “I’ll be seeing you soon, my darling.” And then they stop. It was so lovely and sweet. I can only imagine that the letters were passed onto Goodwill because they’ve passed on. If your grandparents’ names are Ronald and Millie, you’re very lucky to have known them. They’ve been an inspiration to me. Reddit User: Mickiwilliams
It Cost You $2400
My mom used to work at a thrift store, and I was in middle school at the time. I was in the sorting room waiting for her to get off and I was hanging out with the sorting guys. One of them pulled out this white trash bag, and it was just full of Legos. They asked if I wanted it, I said of course.
It was time to leave, and one of the other sorters asked if he could look inside the bag, and I said sure. He started to dig around the bag and found a load of live shotgun shells ranging from 12g-20g and a bunch of .22lr rounds. I’ll admit, I was pretty disappointed they found all of that in the bag because it would have been mine, but it was for my own good. Reddit User: BikiniAlterBoy
Finding A Piece Of History
I don’t know if it’s weird per se, but we got people who dropped off their rubbish overnight just to get rid of things they didn’t want to take to the dump. One morning when I was working there during high school, I showed up, and amongst the garbage, there was this really neat, but ugly, vase. The company had it appraised and ended up selling it for $2,400.
Traditionally, if something was dropped off during the day time that had value, we would try to give it back to the owner who may not have known. We can contact them by calling, or if someone knows who they are, that always helps. However, this was an annoying overnight get-rid-of-our-trash attempt, so their willingness to save $30 to not take their trash to the dump cost them a $2,400 vase. Reddit User: PigeonFace
A Real Bargain For $4
I used to manage a pawnshop. We took in a giant cast iron stove/oven/heater all in one thing from a tiny derelict cabin in the woods. I was given the task of cleaning it. After scraping up a heap of stuff from the inside, I found two 1920 something Chicago minted $20 bills. I thought they were like fake money because they looked so weird.
Apparently, they are super rare, and we gave them to the family who sold us the unit. It’s not like jaw-dropping cool, but scraping through rust and dust and stumbling across 1920s bills was like finding treasure. I was so excited. On the stranger side, I had a homeless guy come in with a big bag of Nokia brick phones he had found in a dumpster. Reddit User: MEGAPUPIL
The Answering Machine
I did not work at one, but I went to their auction once. They had large laundry bins stuffed with items. While I was there, I noticed an old board game called Dark Tower made by Milton Bradley. At the time, I knew it was worth around $300. This thing was in pretty much mint condition. The only issue was the tower had been taken out of the box and placed in one laundry bin…
The boxed game with everything else was in another bin. Another was filled with things like stuffed animals. Long story short, no one wanted either bin, and I offered $2. But I also told the guy the tower belonged in that board game, and I wanted to pluck it out of the bin. I ended up paying $4 for both bins. I sold the box and manual for the game for $300. Reddit User: DeLee2600
The Old Lady Played Me
I used to be a worker at Goodwill, and once, we found an answering machine with the tape still in and decided to listen to it. There were several hilarious messages from one lady dumping the guy. Beep: “I’m done with you! I’ve put all your stuff out on the porch. Don’t call me, don’t come over, and don’t even think about me. Do not call me.”
There was another message. Beep: “I’m just calling to tell you don’t call me. I’m serious, don’t call me ever again, and don’t call me. Do. Not. Call. Me.” Beep: “I put your stuff on the porch. You had better come get it. Don’t call me ever. Don’t call me. I mean it. Do not call. I’m done with you.” Beep: “I’m just calling to tell you not to call me. Never call me again!” And so on! Still cracks me up. Reddit User: nerd_murderer
Cleaning Up The Party
I used to work at Goodwill during my summers in college. The maddest I’ve gotten at someone donating items was this woman donating one of those old tube TVs. At this point in time, Goodwill, or at least the ones in my area, had stopped accepting tube TVs as donations about seven months prior. She brought it in and put it on the conveyor belt.
I told her we no longer accepted those and pointed to the sign on the door stating so. After a few minutes of debate, she started insisting she talk to a manager because “Goodwill still accepted tube TVs.” I ended up going into the back for a few seconds and called a manager over. When I got back into the donation area, she was already back in her car and then took off, the TV still on the conveyor belt. I was absolutely furious. Reddit User: Tallness45
It Wasn’t A Christmas Sweater
I volunteered at a place for a couple of years in Arizona. The thrift store was located in a low-income, sketchy part of town, so we always had interesting stuff come through the door. Just the amount of trashiness and stupidity people are capable of is beyond me. We got party trash—a group of people for some reason deciding to drop off literally trash I can only assume came from a party…
Which includes but isn’t limited to tons of used utensils, used paper plates with food on them still, empty beer bottles, diapers, thrown away food, and other party trash. We’ve also had someone anonymously donate a full box of nothing but dirt. This happened two times. We’ve had a lot of bullets and jewelry come through,y too. Reddit User: TheFararLefty
Being Part Of A Crime Scene
The conservative, Christian high school I attended holds a rummage sale a couple times a year to help raise money for the school. A couple of years back, a friend and I decided we wanted to get some clothes and other things together to donate to a women’s shelter, but we ended up donating all the stuff to the school rummage sale instead. We went into the sale the first day it was open…
And we see one of the sweaters our friend gave us displayed in pride of place. It was only then we noticed for the first time exactly what the sweater actually looked like. It was covered with weed paraphernalia—pot leaves and bongs. Keep in mind, the school is an extremely conservative Christian one. It turns out none of the ladies noticed and set it up front and center because it was “such a nice sweater.” Reddit User: Petronella23
My professor always recounts the story of how her job at the local Goodwill was to sort through items to throw away. There was a big bin outside the store that people just dumped their donations in, so there were often some really awful items in there. One day, she found this stained blue athletic shirt, stained jeans, and a stained backpack in a pile at the bottom of the bin.
She immediately put it into the trash pile because it was in horrible condition. Three days later, news broke that they found the body of a murdered guy at the bottom of the sewer. He was last seen wearing a blue athletic shirt and jeans and carrying a backpack. She contacted the police, and they had to track down the Goodwill trash. It was so creepy. Reddit User: RelleWrite