There are TV shows about that.

Thanks, Sunshine. Makes you wonder about the folks who leave these things behind, doesn't it?

I'm not a gambler -- my luck I'd get a unit full of old dixie cups and newspapers.

Sounds like some of the farm auctions we have attended. Lots of interesting stuff and old. We have lots of furniture in the house, real good wood etc. Also went to a lumber yard auctions while we were building. Got so much--guess we could build 2 other houses. Good stuff too.
If I was younger and in larger cities, I would like to do this. Son would sell at flea markets and did pretty good.

Back in the day I was an auction fanatic. Almost every Wednesday and Saturday I would be at an auction. I learned a lot and got many good buys. Some of the furniture, and collectibles in my house and my grand's came from auctions. I bought and resold a lot of things. When the Storage Unit sales started, I didn't do those.

I watch and/or DVR most of the auction shows, also Pawn Stars and Cajun Pawn. Some of them now though are obviously in part scripted.

Sue

Interesting article! I do watch "Storage Wars" ... fun show. Personally I'm not enough of a gambler to bid on a storage unit.. plus I wouldn't want to have to get rid of all that stuff.

I feel sorry for the people who have personal mementos and family items in these lockers and end up losing it all cause they can't make their payments.

"I feel sorry for the people who have personal mementos and family items in these lockers and end up losing it all cause they can't make their payments."

Really?
Since they don't bother to remove any of it when they can, I just always figured that they really didn't care/didn't want anything in there....

I personally know someone that left an entire house full of all of his EVERYTHING! From personal records/mementos to clothing to jewelry and furniture. Every single thing that he owned, he just got in his truck and drove away with only the clothes on his back. He had fallen into the bottom of a bottle. Then drank until he almost died and ended up in the hospital, now clean for a couple years and is very upset that everything he owned, including irreplaceable family mementos/jewelry/photos/videos are go forever! I guess sometimes people just go off the deep end and don't think. I imagine sometimes these storage units are owned by people that die and no one really even knows they exist if it wasn't told to someone they left behind. I'd think it could be pretty sad going through that stuff and also exciting when you find a valuable! I know that at least in the case of my friend, their stuff they left was worth 10's of thousands of $$$!!!!!

I read that article in the paper this morning too, Sunshines. I'm not crazy about the name change of the St. Pete Times, are you?

When I was in Florida I had some things in a storage for over a year and I got to know the owner of the storage facility very well.

One day I went to pay my monthly bill and I got to talking to the owner and he says, "Look at this mess I have going on right now" as he handed me some papers to read.

It seems that a man told him that he was going to work overseas and had rented a large storage room and paid the fee in advance for one year. About two months befofe that contract expired they received a Certified Check and a written request to renew the contract for another year. When the contract expired at the end of the second year they sent a billing invoice to the last known address, but got no reponse. He said he could have taken possession at the end of 30days but he thought this guy was such a good customer that he would cut the guy some slack, and he sent a second bill and waited another month, with no reply, so he sent a third notice informing them if they didn't pay this time the locker would be opend and the contents disposed of, but still no response.

When he finally opened the locker he found that the had removed the lightbulb from the overhead light fixture and put a plug adapter in the socket, then they set a full size chest type deep freezer in the middle of the room and plugged it in. When they opened the freezer they found the guys wife.

One of the students that I taught in technical school would bid on units like that and give me all the bibles to give a teacher who worked with me and her church and she would distribute them along with tons food every Saturday to the sections of town that needed help. I sometimes went with her to help out. It was wonderful and a true blessing. You would not believe the bibles that that lady gave my friend that were left in those storage units.

Lazypup, wow. I didn't see that coming. My heavens, I bet the fella hadn't seen anything like that before.

Then what happened?

Yes, then what happened? We gotta know!!!!

First the Sheriff's dept investigated, but they couldn't figure it out.

They took fingerprints from the ladies body, but they were not on file anywhere, but then one is not fingerprinted unless they have either committed a crime, served in the military or worked someplace that requires bonding so it is not uncommon for people to not be in the fingerprint files

When the guy rented the space he told them that he was going to be working for the Navy on an overseas contract so the Sheriff's dept contacted the Navy Base and asked their investigative unit to help. The navy also investigated but they said they had no one by that name under contract.

The Navy then notified the FBI that they suspected someone was impersating Navy personel and the FBI investigated. All the while that storage locker remained sealed by law enforcement as a crime scene for nearly a year.

Finally the FBI took the serial number off the freezer and checked with the manufacturer and they got a name from the original warranty contract. Once they had a name they tried to find that person but he was not to be found. They did find a record of a marriage and it had the wifes maiden name.

They had good photos of the lady because she was well preserved in the freezer, so they took a photo to the family of the lady on the marriage certificate to see if they could identify her, and sure enough, it was her, but she had been reported missing about 3 or 4 years before they found the freezer.

By the time they found the freezer there was no further records anywhere of the husband, no employment records, no banks, no tax records, no DMV or medical records to be found and the name that he used to rent the storage was for a man who had died almost 5 yrs before he rented the locker...

To the best of my knowledge the husband is still in the wind.

I drive past storage units on my way home every day. On weekends they have BIG sales on ALL the left items.

Another unusual find in the storage unit. Once again in FL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grandma found in storage unit

My father was a realtor and bought homes, renovated them and sold them. He came home once, I remember with a Grover Cleveland White House Cookbook. Most interesting!

beaurose, that was an interesting story too.

"Storage Wars" is one of my favorite shows. I like the main guys and gals

I used to clerk Saturdays at a storage unit facility. At one time, they just hauled the stuff to auction if it was any good and they filled up dumpsters on a regular basis with junk. Most of it was junk.
Now they make more money letting people buy the stuff "blind" I went past one time and the place was packed and at first I couldn't figure out what was going on - then I knew...
The people on Storage Wars aren't making a nice living on units, they are paid to do a tv show. I love how they appraise their own items and say they made this much or that much. You make nothing until the stuff is sold for what you think it is worth.
The ones really making the money are the auctioneer and the owner of the facility.

Yuuuuup!

Speaking of leaving everything behind, I have a cousin whose DH went to work one day and never came home. They had been married 25 plus years and didn't get along.This was in 1998 or 99 and she never heard from him again. She contacted his family and returned photos and other sentimental items. She then had a big garage sale. They were very active in Elks and she heard that some men heard from him occasionally but would not reveal his whereabouts.

LOL at dedtired!

linda in iowa - There's a good movie about just that subject, called "The Upside of Anger".

Reminds me, I enjoy watching reruns of Storage Wars

DH used to buy storage units just for something to do. He would sell the stuff at the flea market on the weekends. I went to some of the auctions with him. I was lots of fun. The prices were nowhere near what you see on tv at that time. We didn't make a lot of money but plenty to keep buying more units and have some "play" money. I wouldn't want to have to do it for a living but it was fun as a hobby.

DH would call me at work and tell me how many units he had bought and I would always tell him not to touch them until I got home. It was like opening Christmas presents. We got some trash and some really good stuff.

About 20 years ago, I rented a storage unit to store my artificial Christmas Tree and decorations. Kept it too long, the price of rent kept going up. When it got to $101 a month I decided to empty it. Brought everything home and was able to toss or properly store everything in my attic. How I hated driving to that place every month and paying eighty or ninety bucks to keep my husband from seeing all the stuff we owned. The owners of the place occasionally put items from abandoned units on sale in the office. I once bought my hubby a nice warm like-new satin Yankees jacket.