They couldn’t believe their eyes (Image: Getty)
Charity shops — those beautiful, magical, jumbled mazes with affordable treasures galore.
Usually brimming with a mixed bag of clothes, footwear, books, trinkets, furniture, crockery, accessories, and daily use items — charity shops are a great way to spend thriftily, give back to society, and deter the unending cycle of fast fashion and its burden on the environment.
People often use charity shops as a means to declutter their homes and wardrobes, donating items they no longer have use for. These items are then bought by someone else who gives them a second life, and the cycle carries on.
In this process, people often forget to clean out or fully empty the items they are donating, with new owners frequently being treated to nice little surprises when they put their hands inside a pocket or open a drawer.
A thread on Reddit discusses exactly this, with people describing all the weird, wonderful, and sometimes downright whack things they have found inside their charity shop buys.
Read more: Charity shop volunteer urges people to stop donating this common item
Read more: Charity shop fan makes ‘greatest ever find’ worth far more than £20 price tag
On the subreddit AskUK, one Redditor asked the controversial question, “What’s the strangest thing you’ve found inside a charity shop purchase?”, and the answers were wild.
In fact, the wildest response was from the original poster (OP) themselves, with the Reddit user revealing how they found an… unsavoury item in a piece of furniture they had purchased from a charity shop.
The OP shared: “I was thinking back to my time in New Zealand, and the purchase of a $50 chest of drawers. Upon getting it home, we found $50 and a bag of heroin in one of the drawers. So, I ask what is the strangest find in a charity shop purchase?”
While one Redditor couldn’t hide their surprise at the reveal: “Seriously? A jacket or a pair of jeans I could maybe understand, but if your shop’s stocking a chest of drawers surely you’d have a cursory glance inside the drawers first?”
Another was not fazed in the least: “Considering that Kiwi OP shops are essentially what UK charity shops used to be like 20 years ago, that doesn’t surprise me.”
Charity shops are an affordable treasure trove of items (Image: Getty)
Yet another Reddit user shared what they found inside their own chest of drawers purchase, and it was just as wild as the first one: “I bought a chest of drawers from a charity shop, absolutely s*** my y-fronts when I opened the bottom drawer and there was a glass eye in the back of the drawer wedged at the back underneath the paper people used to put in drawer bottoms.”
Other users contributed to the thread, sharing the equally bizarre items they had found while shopping at charity shops.
One Redditor found an eclectic mix of things: “I bought a sideboard from a charity shop and found an entire set of cutlery in a drawer, opera glasses, and an old cast iron iron wedged inside.”
While another had received a rare item indeed: “I used to volunteer for a charity shop, and they once received a donation of a briefcase, and inside it was the previous owner’s last will and testament. The family returned the next day looking for it thankfully.”
In a horrifying turn, one Reddit user shared: “My friend used to work at OXFAM and once opened a bag of donated clothes and found a dead cat in with them.” While there is absolutely no verification for this claim, it’s equal parts terrifying and tragic.
People are revealing all the bizarre things they’ve found inside items purchased from charity shops (Image: Getty)
Some people though, are just born with oodles of luck, with one user sharing their charity shop surprise find: “My ex worked in Oxfam and picked me up a handbag he knew of like. Going through it I found €200 in a pocket.”
Another happy charity-shop frequenter shared: “Went for a really nice coat for my kid for £5 and she put her hand in the inside pocket and pulled out £28 worth of gift tokens that were still valid.”
There were also some people who were on the other end of the scenario — being the ones who left something valuable in an item they donated to a charity shop. One user said: “I donated a jacket forgetting that I hid an unusual diamond, sapphire and white gold ring in the pocket. I hope that whoever acquired the jacket appreciated the ring as much as I did.”
And in what can only be described as a strangely divine (and frankly unsettling) instance, one Redditor shared: “Not me, but my mum.
“Years ago, one of her friends from somewhere down south passed away. We were on holiday in India at the time and didn’t make it back home for the funeral (they weren’t very close, but mum was still a little sad about it).
“About five-ish years later, we were on a little weekend away in Scotland. We were ambling about in a charity shop looking at books, and mum buys one – which was odd cos she hates reading fiction.
“When we get back to our bnb, she flicks through it and a bookmark falls out. The bookmark was a memorial prayer card from the funeral she missed. She was in mild shock for the rest of the trip and kept both the card and the book to this day.
“…also she never did read the book.”
