35 Surprising Discoveries Found Right In People’s Backyards

Most of us don’t go poking around in our yards looking for buried treasure, but what if you just literally stumbled across a strange item while just mowing the lawn or taking out the garbage? Just read the stories below about people who did just that and you might think again about going out and digging around.  

Believe it or not, he had happened upon a whale fossil. Specialists told him that it was about 14 to 16 million years old. It really makes you think about what the world was like then, where the seas were, and how this whale ended up dying in this particular spot. 

What these kids found was the bone of a mastodon!  Experts told them that this incredible find is 13,000-14,000 years old and that mastodons apparently lived in that part of what is now suburban Detroit. We’ll bet that their friends were extremely impressed!

Lena Paahlsson had given up on finding her lost wedding ring almost 16 years earlier. She had looked everywhere and finally resigned herself to never finding it. Then, one day she was pulling up carrots from her garden and she was shocked to find the ring, sitting happily on top of the carrot.

Now, anacondas are not poisonous, so that’s a relief. But they are huge (this one was almost 10 feet long), and if you get close to them, they may bite you. Their bite is not poisonous, but we’ll bet it’s painful. We’d stay away.

Well, we’re not sure what happened with the split. Maybe the group haggled over how much each would get, or perhaps one of the thieves decided to hide their cut.  Either way, owners of a home in Fontana, California, found $600,000 that was identified as part of the money from the theft. 

Last year, a resident of Turlock, California, found this adorable animal in the backyard of his home. The real question is how did the lemur make its way from thousands of miles away to a little town in California?  The likely answer is that someone purchased the exotic animal, and it escaped. We hope it found its way home!

A family in New Jersey looked out one day to see several tiny baby foxes in their yard. They might have been concerned that the mother fox had abandoned them and probably worried about how the babies would survive. 

He found out that this tool was about 1,000 years old and was used for cutting chores. Even more fascinating was that this tool was probably made by Native Americans. It makes you think about who was living on David’s property one thousand years ago! 

In July 2010 a family in Oskaloosa, Iowa found prehistoric bones on their property. Look at the size of just one of the bones! It turns out that the yard contained a nearly complete skeleton of the creature, which roamed the area about 12,000 years ago.

Luckily, the bear did not gain entrance to the home, but just knowing that it had come that close to getting in was pretty frightening for the homeowners. Bears can be pretty brazen when searching for something to eat, and now the owners know that their local bears are getting close to their homes at night. 

The real question is – why did this person hide a pistol? We’ll bet we can all come up with some interesting possibilities. This could have been hidden as far back as 100 years ago, so it’s in pretty good shape. What do you think happened?

Just look at the graceful lines of the snow drift.  Don’t think about the fact that you have no idea when you’re going to get out of the house or uncover your car. Just enjoy the simple beauty for a moment, and have a cup of cocoa.

But it looks like the homeowners started digging on their grounds and found remnants of the poor souls who were buried there about 150 years earlier. The finds may have interest for archaeologists, but for the residents, it’s just plain creepy.

These babies are clearly just born and it looks like they lived under the home somewhere. Hopefully they were warm and dry, and maybe the family that lives there will give them a home, or find one for them.

Before modern trash collection was a reality, people would often bury their trash in their yards. If you live in an old home, there’s a good chance you’ll find something that would be a collector’s item. 

One wonders, considering how hard it can be for humans to get onto a hammock, how this bear got himself all cozy and relaxed. Never mind that, how did he even know that this thing was for resting? Well, don’t go ask him, that may be a bad idea.

Apparently these cards are quite valuable in the Pokémon world, so this treasure hunter is going to make someone’s day (or his own day) in the world of Pokémon card collection. We’d still like to know how and why these cards got buried. 

How could the homeowner family ever say no to that face? She just looks so sweet and just wants to be loved. Whoever abandoned her should be ashamed as they could at least have taken her to a rescue shelter for someone else to love. But we’ll bet the family adopted her and she’s thriving right where she was abandoned.

Whatever the reason for a bullet to be sitting on a roof, none are good. We certainly hope that no one was playing with a gun or with bullets, and maybe this photo is a prank? No one wants to find a bullet anywhere near their home.

The metal rod and mace (studded ball) attached to it were weapons used in the Middle Ages and can inflict terrible pain and suffering. Let’s hope that kids didn’t find this and decide to swing it around to see what it could do. 

While they are striking looking, they don’t look too friendly. We wonder whether Grandma is raising them, or just invites them over for tea. Either way, they are amazing to look at, with such shiny coats and bright red coloring. And her grandson was quite surprised to find them and decided to post the image on Reddit.

All we can think of is some little girl or boy who was terribly distraught at the loss of their beloved hamster, mother of 20!  Juliet must have been very loved for a child to go to all the trouble of creating this lovely memorial. Rest in Peace, Juliet.

Nature is very powerful and somehow always finds a way to continue. Just like those little plants that creep out in parking lots and sidewalks, when nature wants to grow, it will not be stopped.  There’s a lesson in that somewhere.

Maybe it was a mix-tape that someone made for his girlfriend and she tossed it after they broke up?  There are a thousand stories we could make up about this find. But you have to admit, cassette tapes did go the way of the dodo bird not too long ago.

This player was so thrilled to find a rock with an acorn on its back that looked somewhat like a Bulbasaur, that he posted it for all to see. The world of Pokémon is a universe unto itself, and apparently has its own vocabulary and millions of fans. 

In this case, the storm basically blasted apart a tree, putting so much weight on its branches that the trunk split apart from the stress. It just goes to prove how heavy the ice is, and the damage it can do, even to a strong tree. 

Imagine being this guy’s neighbor and watching this structure being built, wondering how big it was going to be, and how noisy it would be all summer with kids playing on it. We have sympathy for the poor neighbors. 

He called the police and told them that he had posted something about being away. So someone knew the house would be empty and hid the stash there. Reed wanted the perpetrator to know that the stash was gone, so he left a note on the vault, “We found it and called the LAPD. They confiscated it and are now watching the place. Sorry.”

The Ferrari was worth $18,000 (about $75,000 today). Then the story came out that thieves had been hired to destroy the car so that the owner could collect the insurance. But the thieves loved the car and buried it so that they could come back for it. The original owner now has the car back. Too bad the kids couldn’t keep it.  

They then found seven more cans containing 1,427 coins with a face value of $27,980. This is the biggest hoard of gold coins ever unearthed in the United States and is valued at $10 million.  Just how the hoard got buried there remains a mystery.  

In fact, the shelter was perfectly preserved, with all of its contents and equipment. They found all sorts of supplies, including aluminum foil, paper towels, medicines, cans of food, and tins of coffee.

Sabaj’s neighbor claimed the money was hers and she had ditched it because it was cursed. She died in January 2012. The judge gave the money to her daughter, and gave some to Sabaj as a reward. Sabaj died ten days before receiving the money. His father then received the money but died when he heard about his son’s death. Sounds cursed to us.

In fact, the medical examiner could tell that the bones were from a Native American who lived in the area. More research will determine which tribe the individual belonged to, and they will be returned to the tribe for burial. What a creepy thing to find in your own yard!

He stashed the find and didn’t think about it again until two years later when he was packing to move. It turns out that the items are about 650 years old! He posted photos on social media and was told that they were extremely valuable. He immediately delivered them to the Austrian Federal Monument Agency (BDA), and is happy to have them housed there.

Since 1968, 126 rockets have been found, many on school properties. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers launched a $10 million area cleanup, but they may not have found every bomb. As a result, area home values have plummeted, and many lawsuits were filed accusing builders of gross negligence and seeking monetary damages.

After reading about these treasure-finders, we’re betting you’re already outside with a shovel, hoping for the best. Who knows what you may find?  We wish you luck in finding something interesting!