wow what a way to end my work week. That is nasty!

uuuhhhh. wow

Same way here, can't find any relatives of the poor fellow. I even tried a genealogy forum on the internet that researches the same last name-no results. I even asked the police when they came here to rent a unit, but that was not something they research. I would hate to think what another manager may do, so I feel that I may just take it to a nice grassy spot at that back of the property and "release" him there.

We had an auction one time and found someone's ashes as well. We did call the funeral home on the box and they located the nearest relative, but it took him 2 weeks to finally come pick his uncle up. It was so funny how concerned he was to pick up his uncle's ashes mind you we had on our desk and read the fishing report to every morning, that he only lived about 3 blocks from here. If it were my family member I think I would have been down here that day. We even told him he could come by after hours since we lived on the property and I had to call him 3 times before he finally came in.

I am very curious about the dog mentioned earlier, Did she come get the dog out when you called or did you cut the lock?

I had a unit that I couldn't get anyone to buy, no matter how low a price as the smell of cat urine was so strong with you opened the door it could have knocked you over. There had even been a litter box moved with the household items and it was still DIRTY!

I finally got someone to buy it for $1.00, just to get it cleaned out. Inside, they found 5 mint condition first run Elvis Presley trading cards sealed in plastic sleeves. He sold one for $350.00 and got a little over $100.00 each for the other 4 on Ebay. $749.00 to clean out a unit....not so bad.

We have had 3 auctions since we started doing this. Sometimes when the lot fails to sell, our supervisor buys it for a dollar and I end up disposing of the contents. Sometimes I keep it for myself if she is ok with me doing so, sometimes I donate it to the local Womens shelter if it is something I think they can use and if it is really trashed I break it apart for the dumpster.

This spring we had one such unit, 10 x 15. It wasn't stuffed with items, just some old nasty mattresses, a couple of flipped over sofas with dusty cushions and bags of stinky nasty trash and a five gallon bucket of cigarette butts. I put off cleaning it out as often as I could as I wasn't looking forward to deconstructing the mattresses and sofas anytime soon. So, finally I had no other choice, I set my alarm earlier than usual so I could get an early start and get it all done in one day.

Most of the stuff appeared to be piled to the front of the unit. Once I got it to the dumpster, I realized there was very little at the back of the unit. However, there was an old oak desk turned upside down on top of four old cardboard produce boxes. I assumed it was to keep any moisture from reaching the top of the desk. Anyway, I got the desk up and off of the boxes and decided to keep it instead of destroying it or giving it away. Opening the first box, I found a series of smaller cigar boxes, inside the cigar boxes were hundreds of old stamps. The other three produce boxes held stamp albums and thousands of those little cellophane envelopes with stamps, and stacks and stacks of First Day Covers. My mind was reeling. I don't know anything about stamps, but knew these were/are good.

I let our supervisor know what I had found and she said I could keep them if I wanted them. I took them out of the boxes I found them in and carefully repacked them into some plastic crates.

That was the best thing I had ever found until the other day. I found a pair of textile wall hangings by Ross Littell. I get to keep those too.

Troy

I was helping the former owner of our place to empty out an abandoned unit. He was just throwing it all away or giving it to the guys helping him (a 10x20x 12 high full front to back and to the ceiling. When I pulled a big envelope marked Souvenier of Disneyland out of the trash pile. It had 3 Original Disney animation cels from Sleeping Beauty and 2 Autograph drawings from Roy Williams the other adult on the original Mickey Mouse Club in it. It was postmarked 1960 That was the best so far and I don't even own the place for another week.

Had a 10 x 10 drive up - no one wanted to bid on it - finally one guy bought it for $30.00 -- long story short -- in the back under all the trash he found a baby grand piano -- not bad for $30.00!!!

Had another that sold for about $300 - the guy pulled out 8 plastic totes of baseball cards and other baseball stuff - all in plastic protectors!

For me - best I found was the Pepsi bank with 20 some dollars in change in it

One of our auction goers bought 3 units his first auction. He spent $300 and came out with a profit of $500. There were air tanks and the like for welding, still full (glad they didn't explode) in one. Those made him about $400 total. One unit had over $30,000 in crystal from germany, which he donated to the local churches and rescue missions before realizing the value. He was very pleased that he made out like a bandit. Comes to every one now and buys at least one unit.

This doesn't embrace the pure sense of the thread, but imagine if it had come to pass:

Some time ago, one of our long-term tenants (a consistent payer on a 10X40 non-climate controlled unit) went delinquent and was not seen or heard from in nearly two months. During this time, we attempted dozens of contacts, searched obituaries, and even googled him to find relatives or friends. I had that familiar gut feeling that told me that all was not right with this situation, so even though I had the certified letter in hand, I did not include his unit in the published auction ad or even cut the lock per our normal schedule of lien activities. Remarkably, on the VERY DAY I finally sharpened up the bolt cutters for entry, he appeared at my desk and GLADLY, WITHOUT QUESTION, paid over $900 (including all statutory and lien fees) in cash to redeem his property. He explained that he had been in the hospital out-of-state and could not reach anyone locally to manage his affairs. He was extraordinarily grateful for our patience...

After he paid, I went back with him to remove the overlock. He opened to door to reveal two vehicles: A Lamborghini Diablo and a 1969 Chevrolet RS Camaro...

I guess the former managers failed to mention the "value limitation" clause in our lease agreement!

John Roser