You may have 50 million dollars
hiding in your attic. Let's talk about that. ♪ (theme music) ♪ - Good Mythical Morning!
- Nobody likes to go in their attic... ...because the attic is just a shame hole
for all the stuff that you're scared to have in your house and too afraid
to get rid of. I love going in the attic. It is a
mystical place where you never know what you're gonna find. I always get
excited about it, except I don't... - ...have an attic, so I'm pretty bitter.
- (laughing) Okay. But especially when we're gonna talk
about these amazing things that people have found in their attics. I gotta get
an attic! Get in there! Okay, let's kick things off
with an attic in Diepholz, Germany. In 2013, a 10-year-old Alexander was
exploring his grandmother's attic... - I used to that at my grandparents'.
- ...when he found a mummy! - I did not find that. A mummy?!
- Not a mommy. He had a mommy. - (high voice) "Are you my mummy?"
- A mummy. This is an Egyptian mummy. (Rhett) Fully wrapped in cloth inside
a sarcophagus, not an esophagus... - ...which I always thought that was.
- I'm sure Alexander crapped his pants. Well, there was an eye socket -- in the eye
socket of the mummy, there was a... - ...little arrowhead. Mysterious, right?
- Whoa! That's cool! So they send this thing off for analysis.
It comes back. It turns out the head is completely authentic. Total mummy.
The body: just plastic. Just plastic. - It's a mummified RoboCop!
- Yeah, the first ever RoboCop! - (laughing)
- His body wasn't plastic, though. - It was metal. It was a robo.
- Yeah, no, that was metal. - I mean plastic.
- Turns out the arrowhead was fake... ...and it was just a children's toy.
No one has confirmed whether or... ...not that was Alexander's. He was
up there just like, sticking the thing. - (high voice) "Whoops! There it goes...
- We know it was you, Alex. ...right in the eye socket." Okay, how
did this happen? Well, in the 50s... Alexander's grandfather travelled to
Africa and came home with a chest. - A box that he never spoke of.
- A sarcopha-chest? Yes, and that was one. And also,
in the 50s, there were these things called mummy unwrapping parties, which
were social gatherings where people would get together and unwrap mummies!
That was a thing! That was aw-- that's so much better
than Pong! I know! Sitting around just talking,
yelling at each other over music, standing around at the stupid
parties that people have today. - Yeah.
- Let's unwrap dead people! - This Friday! At my house!
- Sign me up! - We gotta get a mummy, though.
- Yes. Uh... Chase. (laughing) Okay, all right. Chase willing
to do lots of things. - Wrap him up.
- All right. I got one. 2011 in Utah. Josh Ferrin bought a new house, and
he's checking it out, and like every guy, he goes into the garage to the man-cave,
checks it out. And he find this panel up above with some carpet coming out.
And he's quoted as saying, "I thought maybe this could be a little hidey-hole
and my kids could go up there and play." - "Hidey-hole." Who uses that term?
- (laughing) (nasally voice) "Kids, you wanna go in the
hidey-hole?" Don't ever go in... - ...the hidey-hole, kids.
- Kids, just say no to the hidey-hole. - Please!
- So he discovers it's an entrance to... ...another part of the attic. He goes
up there. He finds a military box, like an ammo box that he opens up.
And check this out. It has rolls of... - ...money in it. Nothing but rolls...
- (Rhett) Wow. ...of money. And then he looks and finds
another box. And another box. And another box. And another box.
And another box. And another box. - Seven boxes. He brings 'em down.
- What?! He and his wife start counting all the
money. $45,000 of bills rolled up. I [was hoping] it would be more.
That's a lot of cash. Turns out it belonged to the former
and now-deceased homeowner, Arnold Bangerter, who worked for the
Department of Fish and Game. And over a decade, he was saving all this
money and wrapping it in orange... - ...fishing twine.
- Ah. I always say, "Why use a bank when... - ... you've got orange fishing twine?"
- I've never heard you say that. - Oh, well you should listen more.
- Josh returned the money. - Good for you, Josh! But he said...
- Oh, nice. ...there was some dissent within the
family, but Josh said he would not... - ...name names.
- Of course it was the wife. - She's making him sleep in the hidey-hole!
- (laughing) - She mad.
- All right, 1991. Moscow. Alexandra Besymenskaja.
I'm saying that wrong. - Yeah, that's not right.
- (crew offscreen laughing) Yeah. Was in her dad's attic looking
for his badminton racquet. Who hasn't been in their dad's attic
looking for his badminton racquet? - (laughing) Right.
- She finds a box that says... "Führerhauptquartier." Saying that wrong
also. But translated, that is Führer Headquarters. And for those of you
who are students of history, you know that that means it belonged to Hitler!
It was actually his personal... ...record collection. Chik-a-chik-a-chik!
Those kind of records. - (Link) Wow! He has DJ-ing?
- (Rhett) Scratchin'! No, this is before. This is pre-DJ days.
Turns out that Alexandra's father was a capitan in the Russian military
and after the fall of Nazi Germany, he was given the responsibility of
transporting some of Hitler's belongings to another
place in Germany. - Or his house.
- And apparently, (laughing) yeah. - He took a little detour. So...
- That's pretty cool. And wrong! ...the question on everybody's mind:
what was in the collection? - What was in the collection?
- Yeah. Well, hits included... ..."I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas,
and by White I Mean Aryan, Specifically." - Wow. You're saying this.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the the other one was "I Just Called
to Say I Hate You." - Stevie Wonders. (laughing)
- Yeah. Stevie Wonders. - Not Stevie Wonder.
- Yeah, Stevie Wonder was much later. - But Stevie Wonders was back in the 40s.
- It was the Third Reich knockoff. Yeah, "I Just Called to Say I Hate You."
Actually, it was just a bunch of Russian composers. Interestingly, the
Nazis though the Russians were subhuman. So he was willing to listen to some
subhuman music. Hitler, ya jerk. - What a jerk. He was a jerk.
- Really a jerk. I don't think we're establishing that in
this conversation. I just think we're... - ...echoing something people know.
- He was such a jerk. 1908 in Norway, , Christian Mustad
purchased a painting that he believed... - ...to be by Van Gog-huh.
- (laughing) - Van Gogh painting. Take a look at this.
- (Rhett) Wow, that's a masterpiece. - (Rhett) That's beautiful.
- Now, the French ambassador to... ...Sweden visited Mustad and saw the
painting hanging up there, and he said, - "This is a fake."
- Oh, yeah. I knew that was a fake. I could tell by looking at it. Totally.
Not the real deal. - Because it was not signed.
Not a masterpiece. Because there... - ...is not signature. Right. That's right.
- Van Gogh did not sign it. - There's not signature. It's fake.
- So he was crushed. He was embarrassed. He took it down and banished it to
his attic for 62 years. Mustard died in 1970, sold the painting along with
the property. The new owner was... - ...convinced that this was a Van Gog-huh.
- (laughing) Okay. But in 1991, he finally got it tested
by the Van Gogh Museum. It sounds pretty legit, and they said
it was fake. - Yeah, 'cause it looks obviously fake.
- But then new technology developed. Two years of chemical analysis and x-ray
research later, plus a letter was found from Van Gogh to his brother, Theo.
You know Theo. - Yeah.
- Theo Van Gogh, the guy who didn't... - ...paint as well.
- (Rhett and crew offscreen laughing) He described the painting exactly,
and it's real! (Rhett) Yeah. I can tell by looking at it. - (Link) It's the Sunset at Monmajour.
- (Rhett) Right, and it's a masterpiece. - Estimated to be worth 50 million dollars.
- Well, of course. I mean, look at it. - It's amazing. 50 million.
- 50 million dollars, but Van Gogh... ...didn't like it. that's why he didn't
sign it. - I hate it as well.
- (Link and crew offscreen laughing) I really... It's the worst. It is the
worst of all the Van Gog-huhs. - (laughing) What else you got?
- In 2008... - Top that!
- ...Pennsylvania. Stacy Ferrance... ...discovers something in her attic.
His name is Stanley Carter. - Oh. There he is!
- (crew offscreen laughing) (Rhett) He's a 21-year-old.
Good-looking guy. He lived with Stacy Ferrance and her
three children for a full week... - ...and while they weren't home --
- He doesn't look like a guy... - ...who'd live in an attic.
- Or while they were sleeping... he would just go downstairs and
eat their food. - Oh, gosh!
- Now, Stacy's son is quoted as saying... ...(high voice) "I heard noises, but I
never suspected anything, We have two cats, and I think my mom could be getting
a drink in the middle of the night." Momma gettin' a drink in the middle
of the night. - And she looked like Stanley.
- Dang, momma! Maybe it was water. Now, this happened
around Christmas time, so he stole some of their Christmas presents from
underneath the tree, including... - Oh gosh, and just took 'em upstairs?
- ...an iPod Nano, a laptop, and even... ...money from Christmas cards. Dude was
just taking money outta Christmas cards. Got a letter opener. He's, like,
sneakin' down. So, how did they catch him? Stacy sees footprints leading to
the attic. I don't know if they had a... - ...mud floor. Or an especially thick...
- (laughing) ...shag carpet? I don't know how she
saw the footprints, but she did. So she calls the cops. The cops show up.
They escort Stanley out. He comes out wearing Stacy's sweatshirt, and her
shoes, and her daughter's pants. - What? There's nothing wrong with...
- Fashionista! - ...this guy. He's totally normal.
- Then, of course, they find all the... ...items that he had stolen, but they also
find a list of every single item that he has stolen, and at the top he has
written, "Stanley's Christmas List." - (laughing)
- So he got off scot-free because it... ...was all on his Christmas list!
Santa wanted him to have this! - No, he's in jail.
- Did they execute him? - Yeah, he had been killed for this.
- Beheaded. - Yes.
- That's what they do. Don't hide in... ...somebody's attic. 2010 in London,
Bill Newman passed away. What?! That's impossible! We just
spoke to Bill Newman! - Not Barcelona Bill. This is another one.
- Oh. There's another Bill Newman. His nephew, Tony, was cleaning out
Bill-Not-Barcellona's attic and he... - ...found this vase.
- (Rhett) Oh, that's beautiful. Now, this has got Antiques Roadshow
written all over it. But not literally, because that would
devalue it. - Right. (laughing) Yes.
- Don't write "Antiques Roadshow" on... - ...something that you wanna take...
- Put it on a Post-It. - ...to the Antiques Roadshow.
- At most. They took it to an auction house, just,
like, an average auction house -- nothing too special -- in West London.
But the bid started increasing in... - ...increments of 1 million.
- Okay, that's a lot. It eventually sold for 53.1 million
pounds, approximately 75 million dollars! - Okay. That's nice!
- At this point, it's not a vase. - It is a "Voz."
- Oh, yeah. It's a "voz." - You call that a "voz."
- (laughing) Yeah, you do. - It's from the Qing dynasty, and...
- I could've told you that. No one -- I didn't ask you that, 'cause
I knew you knew. - (laughing) Yeah, right.
- No one had a clue. The auctioneer was... ...transporting it around in the seat
next to him, but he did have the seatbelt around it. Just driving
around with it beforehand. Okay. Well, you know what? It keeps
us safe, doesn't it? - Yeah!
- That's good enough for a "voz." - I ain't 75 million dollars.
- Good enough for me. Tony remembered that the "voz" sat
for years in his uncle's house on a... - ...wobbly table.
- Oh, gosh. So check you attic, people. There might be something incredibly
valuable up there. Listen, and if you want to explore "why"
behind all this stuff that we've kept in... - ...our attics, that's what we do.
- Yeah, yeah. We do. We stuff things in our attics. Why?
You should check out the Audible book, "Junk: Digging Through America's
Love Affair with Stuff." And we've got a deal for you. Go to
audible.com/GMM. You get a free 30-day trial. They've got 180,000 audiobook
titles, including that one that we just talked about and a lot more.
Link is in the description. Audible.com/GMM. Thanks for liking,
commenting, and subscribing. - You know what time it is.
- Hey, guys. It's Dylan. And I'm in Champaign, Illinois, and it's
time to spin that Wheel of Mythicality. Thanks to Audible for sponsoring
this episode. Remember to go to audible.com/GMM for your
free trial! And you thought Stanley in the attic
was scary? (forced laughter) Click through to Good Mythical More.
Click that "i." 'Cause we are gonna play "Slender: The Arrival." I've never
played it. it's probably not that scary. (Rhett) "World's worst makeup artist." So, welcome to my chair. Sit down.
And then... - I am seated already.
- ...show me your face. Show me your face. And then I'm gonna
rear back, and I'm just gonna smack you with some... with some... with some
makeup, okay? - What?
- Are you ready? - I'm not...
- Are you ready? I'm warning you. - 'Cause I'm a great makeup artist.
- I'm paying for this. - (fake slap sound effect)
- And again. - (slap)
- Oh, we're gonna make that seem... - ...very real.
- And again. - (slap) And again.
- (keeps repeating, getting faster) And now look at your beautiful face. [Captioned by Kevin:
GMM Captioning Team]
