Over on Reddit, people are asking internet strangers for help identifying strange objects that were found. From a mysterious growth dangling from a ceiling to mysterious little golden figures found in an ancient mine, here are a few odd objects that needed identification.
1. What Is This Ring My Uber Driver Would Randomly Click?
u/bit_nothing: “He’s praying, that’s a counter.”
u/womp-womp-rats: “The prayer involves repeating a phrase a certain number of times. Traditionally you kept track on your fingers or with a string of beads. This device does the same job.”
2. Found In A Garden. What Is This Metallic Object That Closes On Itself?
Answered by u/reefrogprince: “Looks like a Hindu ritual box. It is missing the middle piece that would sit in that central hole.”
Answered by u/lmaoooooaf: “Yep! This is used to store turmeric and other colorful powders which we shower over the deity’s idol.”
3. What Is This Thing That Is Growing On The Basement Ceiling At A Very Rapid Rate?
Answered by u/jackrats: “Those are the studs from your walls — redistributed by your termites.”
Answered by u/Ryan-Rides-Firetruck: “This has been solved but I want to CLEARLY inform you that your termite problem has reached far beyond what you may think you are in for when you call this exterminator.”
4. Weird Fish Found After A Storm
Answered by u/thegreatmctator: “Short spined sea scorpion.”
Answered by u/Spookqlyyy: “I believe it’s possible a bird may have dropped it, I live above the cliffs.”
5. Gold Statues Found In Medellin, Colombia Found In A Mine
Answered by u/alleinesein: “Contact the Museo de Oro in Bogota. They would be the ones to know about these since they have an entire museum devoted to things like this.”
6. What Is This Strange Weapon?
Answered by u/ttDilbert: “Drone killer. It sends a strong and very directional radio frequency signal to jam the receiver on the drone to cause it to crash.”
Read More: People Were Baffled By These 10 Mystery Items and Got Unexpected Answers
7. Found In My Yard While I Was Doing Some Landscaping. Heavy, Polished, And Gleams In The Light. Old Or Modern?
Answered by u/forvius: “I know this one! Gold sheen obsidian. Likely intentionally put there and definitely modern. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was related to modern-day witchcraft! 🙂 There’s a huge market for these kinds of carvings, however, they do nothing. Just pretty rocks carved. If you are interested in the stone, there are several other types of sheen obsidian; Silver and rainbow are gorgeous! Nice find. Minerals can be expensive and this is a beautiful carving!
To find identical or similar, look up ‘Aztec-inspired gold sheen obsidian head carving.’ You appear to be missing the base it clicks into.”
8. Found This Floating In My Water Glass. Yikes!
Answered by u/SpaceFlightAstro: “It’s a bacteria colony. I.E. do NOT cut it open. I’ve been reading some comments and people are pointing out that it’s probably triggered by bacterial contamination, but is really the micelles clumping together. An excess of grime and bacteria in the water is the most likely cause of the blobs.”
9. What Is This Weird Metal Tube? Found While Metal Detecting On A Farmstead That Stood From The 1890s – 1960s
Answered by u/ViciousNakedMoleRat: “It’s 1940s lipstick by Coty.”
10. Found This In My Grandmother’s Apartment. Is It A Deactivated Bomb…Or Something?
Answered by u/axel_thatcher: “It looks like what you have there is a WWII-era 81mm mortar. There is no fuse in the nose of it, and by all accounts, it should be inert. However! If you look down the hole that should be in the nose and it’s filled with a plastic-y, somewhat smelly brownish material, IT COULD STILL BE LIVE.
On the other hand, if it’s simply hollow or filled with metal, congratulations! It’s inert and makes an excellent paperweight or bookend.”
11. What Is This Shower Knob And Why Is It Behind The Bathroom Door?
Answered by u/Sorrypuppy: “Jesus christ…… I let it run for a while just to see if the floors would get heated. NOPE. The weirdos that built this house for some reason put the water connection to the swamp cooler in the bathroom.
I just found that out when I started hearing water pouring off the roof right now. The house has had A/C since like 2014, but they left the swamp cooler up there. OMG! I can’t believe I thought for a second I would have a heated bathroom floor. God dammit.”
Read More: 24 Everyday Objects With ‘Secret’ Uses You Don’t Know About
12. What Is This Thing My Friend Found In The Water?
Answered by u/MsMargo: “Found it! Couldn’t sleep without finding the previous solve.
‘This is a figure of the Santerian Orisha Olokun. One hand holds a snake, the other a mask. They typically come off because these figures are kept in water 100% of the time. If you found this in the ocean, then this is more evidence towards that as Olokun is tied to the ocean. This was probably disposed of ritualistically and replaced with a new one.
Google ‘Olokun Tools’ to see a bunch of different styles.’”
13. I Got A Bag Containing 6 Of These From China. I Have No Idea Why! What Are They?
Answered by u/GatorInAVest: “Rose of Jericho (Resurrection Plant, Dinosaur Plant, Jericho Rose)”
Answered by u/OverAster: “It’s a brushing tactic. They send you some pseudo-worthless object and then demand that you pay for it in a while.
If you live in the US, it’s now legally your property, and they can’t force you to pay for it or return it. If they try to contact you just toss the mail. Have fun with your new plant!”
14. Found This In The Woods Behind My House
Answered by u/TaikongNiuzai: “Buck Rogers disintegrator.” In other words, it’s an iconic toy from a forgotten era.
15. What Are These Things In This Old ‘Mine’?
Answered by u/BowesKelly: “It’s a collapsed wood-stave pipeline, it may have been for dewatering the mine.”
Answered by u/ksdkjlf: “It’s not a mine. ‘At one point, the railroad was forced to avoid a rock outcropping by running the wooden penstock through a tunnel. Today rock falls have hidden the tunnel portal, but with a bit of scrambling, it can be found. The remains of the wire wrap are still in place.’
It appears the trail you were on is called the Tumwater Pipeline Trail, which might’ve been a clue?”