Last month marked the ten-year anniversary of the day that we moved into our house. We've made so many memories over the years and had so many good times. But, to this day, there is still one box that we haven't unpacked since we moved in. It's in a storage shed in the yard where we store things that aren't deemed "special" or "important" enough to warrant space in the main living area, in the basement or in the garage but much to "valuable" or "momentous" to donate to Good Will.
Of course, it's sometimes easy to forget what's out there. The old adage "out of sight, out of mind" has a lot of truth to it. Once in a while I discover something in the shed that I'd forgotten all about. But never a relative!
Last Thursday, a manager at a self-storage facility in Florida made a shocking discovery when a customer revealed that her family had stored their grandmother's corpse in a rental unit for approximately seventeen years. The manager had called the tenant to let her know that she was behind on payment and warned that the unit's contents would soon be sold at auction to bring her account up-to-date.
I've watched enough episodes of Storage Wars to know that this is true. They'll cut the locks off of those units and sell the contents, sight unseen, to anyone that thinks they smell a bargain.
The customer, whose identity remains anonymous, told the manager that he couldn't sell the possessions because one of the items was her grandmother. Allegedly, the woman's mother had told her on her death-bed that "Grandma is in the storage unit, so you can't sell our stuff".
The manager was skeptical until he checked the storage unit and saw a long blue casket. That's when he notified the authorities. Since then, a death certificate for the grandmother has been located indicating that she had passed away in 1995 and was reportedly properly prepared for burial.
So far, no charges have been filed. Authorities are continuing the investigation. I certainly understand that it's easy to lose something in a storage unit, or forget that you put it there in the first place, but certainly not a loved one.
Our plan is to, "some day", have a yard sale. I wonder what they planned to do.
Copyright © 2012 DiatribesAndOvations.com