Dan Wilbur
If you’ve ever cleaned out an old drawer and found mysterious cables or screws or something you can barely identify, I’ve got great news. There’s a Reddit forum where people ask “what is this thing?” and lurkers on the website offer the correct answer.
Each of the following photos is a great mystery. Someone with a garage full of stuff needs to know what the thing they found is, and within days or even minutes of posting it online, they have an answer.
If you’re in the mood to find out new things about this crazy world, below each photo, I’ve added the answer.
Here are the strangest objects people have found and surprisingly figured out what those objects were with the help of Reddit:
1. Found while cleaning out a deceased estate. At first glance, looks to hold liquid, but has a large hole in the bottom so, what is this thing?
Answer: It’s a wasp trap. Sweet fluid and dish soap go in the bottom. Insects fly in, dish soap eliminates surface tension and coats them. They drown.
2. Goat in a field in Scotland, appears to have had handlebars added to his horns?
Answer: Farmer attached these to the goat because he wouldn’t stop sticking his head through a fence. Better to prevent it than keep pulling him out.
3. Found in a crawlspace of a house from the 80’s next to 3 red boxes encased in concrete.
Answer: It really is an “orphan source,” a piece of radioactive material not regulated anymore. They need to call the police and the Department of Energy.
4. Found on my driveway. The police arrested my neighbor last night; could it be related to that?
Answer: It’s a taser dart.
5. What is this thing we found while renovating? We haven’t touched it since my dad thinks it’s an explosive from World War II.
Answer: Yes. It’s indeed a British mortar round from WWII.
6. Concrete slab or box found on my friends’ farm. It’s about the dimensions of a coffin with iron rings on top.
Answer: Septic tank.
7. Radioactive symbol and some speaker in 1940’s house?
Answer: Indeed radioactive. It’s an old fire alarm.
8. Found on the door in the home I just bought in Australia. What is this?
Answer: Insect eggs. Most likely moths.
9. Solid metal “kiss” that was in our bag of candy cane kisses. Is it part of the machinery?
Answer: Definitely not a part of the machine. Since it is the same size and shape, I would say it’s a QA “guage” to help operators verify shape and portion size at a glance.
10. Found while helping a friend clean out a house.
Answer: An old steam engine toy.
11. Heavy mass hanging on transmission cables?
Answer: Sadly, it’s an art piece in Brazil, not a meteor or wasp’s nest.
12. What’s this bug? Landed on my friend and hung for a while, tried to square up too. Found near water in the Willamette Valley, OR
Answer: A Lined June Beetle.
13. What is the purpose of the “chip” in the one prong of this fork? At first, I thought it actually was just a chip but turns out it’s on multiple forks in my drawer. Any ideas?
Answer: They make one tine wider for cutting stuff, but the wider one wouldn’t stab as well as the others, so they gave it a clipped point.
14. Found in the wood in a creek. It was under a piece of wood.
Answer: Midge eggs.
15. Found this while renovating. Any idea? Bomb squad on the way. Montreal, QC
Answer: Yep. It’s an artillery round.
16. Found In Huntington Beach Ca. Squishy, Like A Hardboiled Egg, But Firm. My Husband Touched It, Is He In Danger?
Answer: No. It’s a sweet potato sea cucumber.
h/t Reddit: r/whatisthisthing
