10 Terrifying Things People Found in Their Basements

Some use the basement for yoga, a home gym, or something productive like an office away from the kids. Others bring in a dart board and a few loungers and turn it into a man cave. Most store piles of junk they will never use (which might also include said gym equipment or dartboard). Whatever the case may be, the basement is a space in the bowels of a building, not often visited. Therefore, it’s not surprising that it has become synonymous with Hollywood horror stories, where monsters are often portrayed as lurking in the shadows, biding their time before striking.

In reality, the basement is a boring spider nest. Still, other times, it might hold a few secrets of previous tenants or even a time gone by. Here are ten crazy things people discovered in their basements.

Related: 10 Times Valuable Comic Books Were Found in Homes

10 Nineteenth-Century Well

A well in and of itself doesn’t come off as particularly frightening. Out there in the field, you can distance yourself from it and tread carefully when lifting water with the bucket. But if you imagine yourself falling in, that’s a whole ‘nother story. Now imagine that well is in your basement, and you fall through the floorboards into the cold depths below.

Christopher Town (67) was helping his friend move furniture into his home when he heard a crack. The floor gave way, and Christopher plunged into the darkness 20 feet (6 meters)below. Unable to touch the bottom of the well, Christopher was forced to cling to the rocky walls of the well to prevent drowning until the rescue team arrived to save him.

The well used to be located outside until the house was expanded in the 1980s, after which the nightmarish hole was left uncapped and only covered with wood.^[1]

9 A Father’s Bones

Michael Carroll spent years trying to puzzle together the mystery of what happened to his father, George, who disappeared in 1961, never to be seen again. Until he bought his childhood home, that is.

His mother told him he disappeared while buying cigarettes or that he ended up with a Korean lover. Others suggested that George might not be too far away. When Micahel moved into the house, he employed psychics and a company with ground-penetrating radar to find whatever he could until the police dug up the remains.

What makes this case even more interesting is that George’s skull showed signs of blunt-force trauma. Michael’s mother passed away in 1998, which means we might never really know the story of how George Carroll ended up under the house.^[2]

8 Alligator

When a repairman was called out to a house in Lansing, Illinois, to fix some faulty appliances, a basement creature was the last thing on his mind… until he spotted movement.

When rummaging around in the basement, one can expect to find a spider or the odd mouse, but what he stumbled upon was a nightmarish 6-foot (1.8-meter) long, 200-pound (91-kilogram) alligator kept in a large cage. Before the discovery, it had been held captive for 26 years, being fed on a diet of raw chicken.

Charles Price, the homeowner responsible for the captivity of the ancient beast, was promptly charged with the misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of an endangered species. However, he insists that he took very good care of it.^[3]

7 Secret Housemate

When the housemates of 13th Avenue, an off-campus house in Ohio moved in, they thought the house was shared by 10 people on the first floor (2 of which were girls). But only when they began to notice a few things out of place—open drawers, microwave recently used, strange sounds—did they suspect all was not as it seemed.

One day, a roommate named Brett went down to the basement to flip a tripped circuit breaker when he met a man who referred to himself as Jeremy. The man refused to answer any of Brett’s questions. Their roommates launched a thorough search of the house but could not open a lock on the basement door.

The landlord and police broke open the door, and inside, they found numerous personal items (photos, TV, clothes) belonging to nobody in particular. It wasn’t clear how long the so-called Jeremy lived with them.^[4]

6 Revolutionary War Soldiers

When homeowners from Ridgefield, Connecticut, began the process of renovating their 18th-century home, plans came to a grounding halt as what they discovered under the basement was nothing short of terrifying. Human remains.

Archaeologists and forensic experts were called upon before further excavations unearthed two more skeletons. All three skeletons were men between the ages of 21 and 50, and it was determined that the bones were not from this lifetime.

The current house was built in 1970 on the site of the Battle of Ridgefield that took place in 1777, and it is believed that the men met their unfortunate end around the same time, making it the first discovery of Revolutionary War-era soldiers recovered in Connecticut.^[5]

5 Snake Infestation

When Royce Robins and Shaynon McFadden moved into their Colorado abode, they never imagined that something might be lurking beneath them until the problem began sticking their heads up through the floorboards.

As the weather became warmer and the seasons changed from spring into summer, their problem just became worse. Snakes. Hundreds of them slithering and hissing under their feet, popping up all around the property until they noticed them peeking out from under their deck.

What they found was a nest of horror. Over 150 snakes were removed from under their home by pest control, and a new deck was required at the cost of $8,000. The snakey ordeal is over, but the memory of the critters will surely haunt their dreams for a long time to come.^[6]

4 Nazi Tank

Owning of Nazi memorabilia is frowned upon, and rightly so. Some have a fascination with the macabre, the controversial—hiding a flag, a hip flask, or even an army-issued Luger pistol is as easy as covering it in a pillowcase and popping it among the rest of your junk. But what about a tank?

An investigation into a senior citizen in Heikendorf, Northern Germany, revealed a WW2 Panther tank hidden in his basement, along with stockpiles of ammunition. A collector by heart, he practically broke every rule in the book when it came to stockpiling weapons and was taken to task, receiving a €250,000 fine along with a suspended sentence.

According to the man’s lawyers, a museum in the U.S. had shown interest in purchasing the tank, arguing that it might be the most efficient use for such a vehicle.^[7]

3 Chapel

Most secret religious sects have a measure of mystery and, therefore, are a scare factor for anybody on the outside. Their place of worship might have the same effect, but if those places become abandoned, they become terrifying.

Such a terrifying place was exactly what Pat and Diane Farla found when exploring a few nooks and crannies in their house. The house, which was built more than 170 years ago, is rich in history. Still, nothing could have prepared them for discovering an abandoned chapel in their basement, hidden underneath a metal grid.

In the center of the room, there was a cross on the floor, and hooks hung from the ceiling. After exploring further, they found stairs that led behind a cupboard in the dining room, in what could have been a secret passage used by Catholics or other non-conformist religious groups to hide their religious activity.^[8]

2 Bear

Every year, some woodland critters seek out safe and warm spots to survive the winter months while in deep hibernation. Bears are known to find caves and holes, and a basement or a gap under a house is exactly the type of place that could be perfectly suited.

When a family from California heard some loud noises emanating from under their home, their suspicions peaked, and they began their investigation. What they stumbled upon was a full-grown bear having a snooze in a hole on the side of the house.

Much to their luck, the BEAR League, a volunteer, community-based organization, came to the rescue, waking the beast from its slumber and saving the day for all involved.^[9]

1 Poop-Covered Man

One day, the police received a distressing call from someone who said their grandson was breaking things in the basement and drugs were likely involved. The man had also threatened to kill himself.

Upon investigation, police discovered a 23-year-old man in the basement jumping on chairs, striking his head against the low-hanging ceiling, and injuring himself in the process. To turn a bad situation into a nightmare, the man was also naked and covered in fecal matter.

With the man unwilling to cooperate, the police made the decision to subdue him for his own safety by tasering him and taking him for a mental evaluation and a good scrub down, no doubt.^[10]