You thought this would be a nice donation for who?

There's a saying: One man's trash is another man's treasure. But sometimes, one person's trash is another person's nightmare to deal with at a donation-based clothing store. So Redditor mellow_harsher took to the message boards to ask:

I used to sort through donations at Goodwill. What's the strangest thing you've found in a thrift shop? I'll start.

Her story:

I processed donations for a year and a half, and found so many strange items. People will donate literally anything. Used diapers? Sure. Bags of trash? All the time. Sex toys? You betcha. What's your most bizarre find?

When I was about 8, I got a dollar to spend at the thrift store. I found a small wooden doll chair that I liked, and bought it for like $0.25. Once I got it home, I saw that my own last name was etched into the bottom of the chair. Turned out my uncle had made it in woodworking shop when he was a kid, it had been sold at a garage sale, then eventually ended up at the thrift shop.

I know a guy that bought a 1957 Fender Stratocaster at a Goodwill for $20. The guy at the counter apologized to him because it had two broken strings. He said his hands were shaking as he gave the guy the money.

That s* never happens to me.

Not really strange, but I found 200 dollars stuffed in to a little ceramic bear.

Yes, I took the money and bought the bear. . . in that order.

I worked at a thrift store in Alberta. Sorting was always the most fun job. It sucked that about 60% of stuff people donated ended up in a landfill. Some of my best (or worst) finds while sorting:

-Some dude donated a sweet Gary Fischer mountain bike that was worth a bunch of money.

-Money in pockets was always the best, never more than $11 for me though :(

-Brand new pair of blundstones, and Sorrel boots

This one dude bought 6 turkey basters one day, and when asked why he was buying 6 turkey basters, he said "Because you only had 6", and walked out. Love thrift stores.

I found a little trophy with "Best Float 1969" engraved on it. It has sat on top of every toilet I've had for the last ten years.

I found a taxidermic frog sitting in a tiny rocking chair. I bought it and mailed it to a friend. She has to keep it, it was a gift.

Well, this was more a yard sale than anything else, but: A stuffed (as in, taxidermied or taxidermized, whatever) raccoon. For $20. How could anyone resist?

Once found the display model of a hoodie at a thrift store. Instead of being a solid color, or having some standard design, it was printed with the advertising schtick.

On the left breast pocket area it has an arrow pointing up and the words "stitched-in drawstring doesn't get lost!" On the other side, an arrow pointing in: "No-stick zipper!"

"Anti-fuzzing liner!"

"Deep Pockets!"

"Antimicrobial fabric!"

My exgirlfriend and her grandmother frequented old thrift stores for clothing and handbags. The grandmother had bought her some big old red bag for like $10, my ex must not have been fond of it cause she didn't touch it for like three months. Finally, she uses it one night, checks the side pocket and there's two grand inside.

I found a shirt a t-shirt that said "I <3 Booty The Monster Watcher". I kick myself for not buying it, and still don't know wtf it means.

I found an NES with a bunch of games duct taped to the top. Inside the cartridge slot was a Half-Life CD.

A few years back I was looking for some cheap Halloween costume ideas, and for the price of $1 I became the proud owner of a signed copy of Carrot Top's Junk in the Trunk... unfortunately it was signed for someone named Erica, and I am not an Erica, so I'm waiting to make friends with a girl with that name so I can give her the best Christmas present ever

I found a Macintosh Classic for $20. The hard drive hadn't been erased and was filled with vintage Mac games from the 80s and early 90s. There was even an icon of boobs without a name that popped up a "Reformatting Hard Disk..." dialog when you opened it.

I found (and bought for 19.99) a painting of two men riding through the old west on horses with revolvers being chased by a somewhat distant group of lawmen or bandits. The best part: the two men are Tupac and Bob Marley. Found in Slidell, Louisiana. Ill try to get a picture up, its at my friends apartment now, I totally forgot about it until this post.

I collect Cabbage Patch Kids, a type of doll that was very popular in the 1980's, although they still make them today. I used to stop by the thrift store pretty often to check their toy section for Cabbage Patches, and one day I found a boy cabbage patch with a bow in his hair, wearing a backwards dress that was so long in the front it covered his feet. He had a cape on that matched the dress which covered his feet from the back as well. He looked good, and even though the clothes were odd, more than 50% of the Cabbage Patch I find at thrift stores are naked, so any clothes are great. I actually spend far more on doll clothes than I do on the dolls themselves.

Anyway, I brought the little guy home and pulled his dress up to check the signature on his butt, because I can tell by the color of the signature what year he was made. What I found freaked me the hell out. The doll's legs were soaked in a dark red, brownish stuff...it was clearly blood. I tried to tell myself it wasn't blood, but I knew it was. I put the doll in the bathtub, put on some gloves, and started to scrub him. I got most of the blood out.

I still have the doll, but he sits on the shelf. I don't want to touch him. I don't know how he got bloody, or why someone would give a blood-soaked doll to a thrift store.

When I worked at Goodwill, designer clothes were quite normal to see in the donation bins. Not so normal: a box full of live snakes and a veteran in pickup truck dropping off twenty boxes of Harlequin romance "novels".

I worked at a place that would collect and ship durable goods for charity, usually things like clothes and small furniture. We once received a large cardboard box, close to 8 cubic feet. Inside was completely stuffed with packing paper, except for the very bottom where there was a horse riding helmet. Gifts from the 1%.

When my brother was six, he had a bicycle that he was completely in love with. It was black with aggressive red flame decals, big rubber handgrips, and glow-in-the-dark beads clipped to the spokes of the wheels.

One day he and my dad biked to the park. They leaned their bikes up against the fence and went to hang out on the play structure. Fifteen minutes later, they turned around--his bike was gone, stolen.

About ten years later, we were walking back to the car after going out to eat, and we passed a Goodwill on the way. Then we saw something in the window, and froze--a child's bicycle. Black, with red flame decals; big rubber hand grips; and glow-in-the-dark beads clipped to the spokes of the wheels.

Cyanide. I don't know what it was supposed to be but it was a jar with some weird brand name and the only other writing on it was warning very poison contains cyanide.

I just paid 25 cents for a t-shirt that says:"I wanted to become a cop-but I decided to finish high school instead". But I'm too paranoid to wear it out in public, my luck I would get stopped while wearing it :)

My sister and I were in a thrift store looking for old leather bound books to use in her wedding centerpieces. Shoved in between some atlases I found a book on sex etiquette. I opened it to a random page and it was the funniest thing I'd ever read. I was laughing so hard that people were staring. Best of all, there was an inscription in the front cover: Remember, you can always say no!

I couldn't convince my sister to use it in her centerpieces though. I stashed it behind some dictionaries and went back to buy it the next day. I'm going to add my own inscription and give it to her as a shower gift next month. I am the best sister ever.

My dad's friend when he was a kid used to climb around in the Goodwill bins because he was small enough to fit inside.

He found a speargun in a bin once, complete with extra spears. This was a legit one for spearing sharks I'm guessing.

He said because of his age he could barely pull back the bands to arm it.

After he shot a spear into his garage door his mother saw it and took it away from him.

Stopped in an antique shop with my dad once, My family has always been very savvy and my dad has been a dealer for twice my lifetime.

I was snooping around, being a little kid, when I came across an old wooden cigar box. I broke the latch and opened it, finding some 20-30 odd sterling pilots wings, an old old piece of thin paper, a worn rock and assorted medals.

My dad took it to the counter, we paid maybe $50 for it.

The worn rock was a worry stone.

The paper was the accommodation notice for a WWII pilot who safely (crash) landed a bomber behind enemy lines after it was demolished by flak and mechanical malfunctions. His entire crew survived. He was rewarded with praise and medals.

I still have roughly a dozen of the wings and have made a good amount of money off the rest, selling only to collectors.

I was able to research the exact battle it happened during, but there is very little history on the pilot himself.

I got this a few weeks ago for 50p out of a charity shop because I couldn't believe someone actually made a board game in such dark satire/bad taste.

Ladies and gentle I present to you: War on Terror: The Board Game.