Old soda bottles in bathroom walls - Why?

[MichaelB]

This has all the elements for a new TV series. Cold case police mystery meets HGTV.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I accidentally left my flashlight in the ceiling when working on a recessed light. I figured it out a few months later and decided to release the can and get it because I worried about batteries leaking.

In the few walls I've dismantled in my home, I've found quite a few Lance Captain's Wafer wrappers. No bottles ... yet.

We had a plumber that dropped an LED flashlight behind out basement bathroom while working. I am not sure who made the flashlight, but it was impressive as you could see it's beam through the vent for almost a month.

My son works in IT and had a month job in Kansas that involved going into the ceiling to do wiring work in 3 nursing homes. He said the amount of garbage left in the ceiling from the construction crew was incredible. He said people are too lazy to throw their garbage away.

When I was a teenager, I was a waiter at the local Cracker Barrel. On occasion, a HS friend of mine would ride with me to work there as a dishwasher. Well at closing time, wait staff finished up earlier than the dishwashers and I was getting mildly irritated that it was taking him so long to get the last of the dishes done. Eventually, he too got tired of it so he took the last bunch of vegetable serving pans (always had to be scrubbed) and stashed them in the ceiling. I wonder how long they were there before they were found?

I couple new homes back, we were digging up the backyard for a patio and landscaping. We turned up old phone lines, cinder blocks, 2x4’s. Our backyard was a dump for the builder - and that was the stuff we could see. Who knows what else was buried.

This was a big problem in our last neighborhood/area. There was a building boom in the mid 70s and the builders would dig massive holes and put all the construction debris in them. Of course, 30 or so years later, almost all the homes in the area had some pretty big sink holes.

 

[Badger]

I couple new homes back, we were digging up the backyard for a patio and landscaping. We turned up old phone lines, cinder blocks, 2x4’s. Our backyard was a dump for the builder - and that was the stuff we could see. Who knows [-]what [/-] who else was buried.

Fixed it.

Cheers!

 

[COcheesehead]

Fixed it.

Cheers!

My point exactly!

 

[CaptTom]

...the builders would dig massive holes and put all the construction debris in them. Of course, 30 or so years later, almost all the homes in the area had some pretty big sink holes.

I just watched a crew do this at a nearby property. They had done a bunch of demolition, and after salvaging what metal they could, and burning off everything else, they dug a huge, 30' hole in the ground out back and pushed all the broken-up concrete and whatever into it. Graded the whole thing and now it looks great. Of course this on a property zoned for a single residential building, so it's unlikely to ever be a structural problem.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I just watched a crew do this at a nearby property. They had done a bunch of demolition, and after salvaging what metal they could, and burning off everything else, they dug a huge, 30' hole in the ground out back and pushed all the broken-up concrete and whatever into it. Graded the whole thing and now it looks great. Of course this on a property zoned for a single residential building, so it's unlikely to ever be a structural problem.

It is illegal in a lot of areas and I can tell you...it may not be a structural problem, but having a bigass sink hole open up in your yard (albeit many years later) can be quite problematic.

And of course, zoning NEVER changes...so...

 

[grasshopper]

One of our homes new construction always had a toilet flushing backup The contractor came out to our house and fished up yards and yards of carpet scraps from the sub that stretched the carpet.

 

[Out of Steam]

When we redid our kitchen about 10 years ago we found an empty pint bottle of cheap whiskey in between studs. Did not inspire confidence.

We were fairly certain that the electrician who wired our previous house had been drinking on the job.

 

[Telly]

We were fairly certain that the electrician who wired our previous house had been drinking on the job.

A boozy electrician is the morticians friend.

 

[SecondAttempt]

When remodeling a bathroom in my 1956 house, I found empty soda bottles inside 3 of the walls. There were a total of 7 bottles, each with nails driven around them so they couldn't fall over. It seems like an intentional act, not just carelessly forgetting them. I can understand construction guys setting their bottles there as they were building the bathroom, but why would they leave them instead of returning them for the deposit? And why would they drive nails around them?

I read the full thread then did some googling. Finding bottles in old walls does not seem to be unusual. But I am left with wondering why. Your bottles that seem to be nailed in place suggest it is not just lazy trash disposal. I suspect there was a purpose but I am at a loss as to why. Perhaps they were insect traps. But that is really just a wild guess.

 

[JoeWras]

They just left an easter egg for the future, and the egg was found.

Snopes may call the "soda bottle sabotages car with rattle" a "legend," but they also admit there is some fact to it. It's just a thing to seal stuff up as a joke.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-rattletrap/

A real-life event somewhat similar to the legend occurred in June 2001 when the Queen Elizabeth II's Jaguar was found to contain pornographic magazines tucked into a cavity and a swastika painted behind a seat panel. These discoveries were made during bombproofing of her new auto. According to a Jaguar spokesman, such pranking is "... one of those old traditions where people used to write things behind the seat panel of cars and they were never discovered unless there was an accident." He stated the practice had been common when he was an apprentice: "I have never understood if it's for good luck or what, but the person knows that the owner of the car will never see it. There are hundreds of cars of all makes going round like that. I have not dared to go and look in the casing of mine." The Jaguar worker responsible agreed to resign.

 

[Out of Steam]

When I worked in a supermarket, we used to toss our empty beer cans into an open space at the top of the wall studs in the baler room.

 

[Out of Steam]

A boozy electrician is the morticians friend.

It was mostly a single set of four ganged switches that was miswired, and improved only but so much by the attempts of owner and electricians to fix it.

 

[ncbill]

Friends showed up to their new house build only to find the framers all doing cocaine to start the day...so there was then some delay in getting the house built as they searched for new framers.

Here our HOA has had to completely rebuild some entrances since the brick/block settled after the debris pushed into the foundation of the staircase/landing rotted and so began pulling away from the home.

 

[ERD50]

I read the full thread then did some googling. Finding bottles in old walls does not seem to be unusual. But I am left with wondering why. Your bottles that seem to be nailed in place suggest it is not just lazy trash disposal. I suspect there was a purpose but I am at a loss as to why. Perhaps they were insect traps. But that is really just a wild guess.

I think it was mentioned upstream - the nails just held it so it didn't tip over and spill the contents. They'd be banging on those walls.

-ERD50

 

[JoeWras]

When I worked in a supermarket, we used to toss our empty beer cans into an open space at the top of the wall studs in the baler room.

"Working" in the supermarket and empty beer cans. So why... never mind.

Friends showed up to their new house build only to find the framers all doing cocaine to start the day...so there was then some delay in getting the house built as they searched for new framers.

Told you I read the tales from the construction workers on forums, mostly r/construction.

They constantly talk about framers doing cocaine. It appears to be a thing. Sheesh!

 

[Walt34]

I opened a wall one time, thinking it might be a good hiding spot, and found a shotgun and some boxes of shells. The shotgun seemed to be from about 1910.

Guess it is a good hiding spot

You may want to check for newspaper/police reports of homicides from that era....

 

[Oakster]

Just cool memorabilia for you to find. Lots of people put things like the nice hard cover Cabela's catalogs etc that they used to recieve in the attic insulation, or in walls etc. Just a reminder of the times for someone to uncover some day.

 

[Oakster]

I just watched a crew do this at a nearby property. They had done a bunch of demolition, and after salvaging what metal they could, and burning off everything else, they dug a huge, 30' hole in the ground out back and pushed all the broken-up concrete and whatever into it. Graded the whole thing and now it looks great. Of course this on a property zoned for a single residential building, so it's unlikely to ever be a structural problem.

Its always a problem eventually. Someone will want a pool, a shop, a home expansion etc. Someone will have to dig through all the junk. The new home owner will have to deal with the massive settlement in the middle of the yard
because compaction around the debris is poor. It happens quite often and normally doesnt affect anybody in the original transaction of the sale of the home

 

[mrstop]

I remodel homes for a living. Just opened up a wall. Below the four buried junction boxes (against code) was an empty beer can...

 

[Dream Weaver]

Just cool memorabilia for you to find. Lots of people put things like the nice hard cover Cabela's catalogs etc that they used to recieve in the attic insulation, or in walls etc. Just a reminder of the times for someone to uncover some day.

Above my parents kitchen ceiling we found a bundle of WWII era newspapers.

The (low price) ads, comics (a couple of which still exist), stock market quotes (every dog has his day and then goes poof) and hometown news (local girl gets caught having a dalliance with a German POW etc.) were actually more interesting than the bold print front page MSM war news of the day.

Probably not the future reaction the stasher expected not realizing that the history books and channels would have already hashed out the main events to us many times over.

 

[urn2bfree]

Could have been worse-
https://www.horsenation.com/2022/04/19/equus-obscurus-horse-skull-lore/

In some homes they left horse skulls. Regarding the four found skulls mentioned in the above link found in the walls and ceiling in the Jarrot Mansion in Illinois -whenwe toured it, the story we were told is that Jarrot was notorious for not paying his contractors. As revenge they may have hidden parts of dead horses in the walls as vengeance. Not sure after reading about the superstitious practice outlined in the link whether that may have been some selective “embellishment” of the story by the tour guide.

 

[bigriver]

When I did construction back in the late 80’s, I pulled out lots of newspapers, cans and bottles. They were usually in the inner walls. Always like a time capsule. We started do the same thing. We wrote our names and dates on studs so people knew when we built the house.

 

[Zen of Conscious Living]

I had a friend tell me, years ago, that back east in New Hampshire, a very old family home had been sold to her parents whom wanted to retire in an old historic home built in the 1800's. It was a dream of theirs. The old garage, set back a ways, was failing so they decided to just tear it down and rebuild, and to salvage the wood, for an additional room they wanted to add on the house eventually, too. When the garage was all torn down, with much wood salvaged, they hired an 'ol timer local tractor guy, pushing the old thin foundation away to level the ground...when he hit something hard and weird. The tractor driver got out and he had unearthed what looked like a part of a very old long wooden box. He went in and got the new owners and all came out to look while the 'ol tractor driver easily pried that box open. There was an old skeleton body laying in that box all right, a male, draped with old old worn out pieces of disintegrating clothing. And the rifle that probably killed him according to the tractor driver, was laying right on top of him. Buried with him. My friend said that her parents weren't freaked out about it at all, that it was more of an extreme curiosity to see this old Skeleton and they wondered out loud what the heck might of happened to warrant this killing and burial and if anybody ever "missed" this guy in the probable years of the 1800's. Guess what? They didn't notify anyone, just kept him buried there, just dug more and placed him in deeper as gently as they could move the casket down and built the new garage right over him. I don't know what I would have done if that would have been my property and that old buried body was found. Do you call the police? But her parents, they didn't want any attention brought in and figured no one would know anything anyway. The tractor driver said there are many secrets in those parts of that old historical state. Not to worry about it...So they just said a little rest in peace prayer and it is a secret among the three of them. I really think about that story sometimes. Oh! and they named him/the skeleton, Ezra.

 

[Koolau]

Just after WWII my dad had a straight j*b but also had a small business raising vegetable starts which he sold to the public after his shift. He had bought an old greenhouse and moved it to the old homestead. With that greenhouse he had (literally) tons of extra glass that the original owner had saved as he tore down greenhouses. My dad took it all, thinking he'd build more greenhouses. Shortly after all this, I was born and by the time I was 8, my dad tore down his green house and wanted to get rid of all that glass. At the back of the property were two lots which dad owned. He (and I) dumped all the glass down a little embankment and buried it all with dirt.

Fast forward 55 years. The two back lots were sold long ago and eventually someone put up a house there. One day while I was standing out in the yard at the homestead, a guy came up from the lot and asked me if I knew anything about all the glass he had found in the hillside (he was digging a driveway for the house.) I probably blushed when I told him the story. It was a mess, but I guess they just scooped it all up and took it to a dump. "Be sure, your sins will find you out." Num 32:23