This post is about finding a “safe” of a different sort.
I don’t go looking for this stuff–it just jumps out at me in the course of doing what I do–inspecting Seattle homes. While the safe in the previous post was fun information to share with my buyer, this next “find” was a little more disconcerting.
At one side of the bedroom there was a window seat with a lift up lid for storage under the seat. Naturally I am going to check in a place like this. While you might say, “What could possibly be in there?” My answer is, “All kinds of things.” In places like this I have found signs of rodents, mold etc. One time I even found ivy growing into the space from the exterior.
Inspectors have to have a healthy “nosiness” to do the job we do.
In this particular instance there was an improperly terminated electrical wire.
There was also something else–the subject of this post.
It made me think hard about what to do with the information. I shared the find with the buyer and the agent and all agreed it was an “interesting” find and a perplexing dilemma as to how to deal with the information.
As you can see in the picture below, when I opened the lid, there is an open electrical box in the wall inside.
If you look closely you can see there is something inside the electrical box.
A USB thumb drive.
The mind starts to smoke with wondering what might be on the device. It could be as innocuous as someone’s income taxes or as titillating as the makings for an entire season of Californication.
I think everyone’s idea of a solution at first was to simply give it to the seller. The problem with this solution was that the house had been a rental for many months. So who does it actually belong to?
So what would you do?
Always “putting-down-the-lid,” I guess, is a good plan after all, and lets hope it is password protected.
By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle
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