The time I talked to a corpse and other shocking discoveries

If you haven’t read Dan Alexander’s bizarre story of human teeth and hair being found in the undercarriage of a car by mechanics read it now. It’s enough to give you chills.

The gist of it? Investigators say a woman ran over a body on the New Jersey Turnpike that several other drivers also ran over and didn’t realize it. She brings her car in for service and mechanics find the gore.

So when it comes to shocking discoveries it’s amazing how many people in New Jersey have a story. It’s been a frequent gory topic on our show.

I can share three of my own.

I lived in a high-rise apartment building in Rahway many years ago. One day I was going for a walk downtown and when I left the building there was a guy sitting on some stairs that went down into the basement. I gave him a friendly, “Good morning!” He said nothing back, just sat there ignoring me. I thought he was rude.

When I came back from buying my newspaper I saw the guy still sitting there but with cop cars around him and officers milling about. I got the attention of one and told him I lived here and asked what’s up. He told me the guy was dead. Apparently died sitting up in the overnight freezing cold and just remained that way. They were trying to determine who he was, if he was homeless, etc..

I had been talking to a corpse and had no idea. Does it count as a shocking discovery if you didn’t realize you discovered it!

Another shocking discovery was a strange thing I saw in West Virginia. Out for a hike near woods and farmland I came across this small half-finished structure. I don’t know what it was going to be had it been completed. There were two stories so it didn’t seem like a shed but it was so tiny that if it were a home it was going to be one of those tiny houses you’ll see on HGTV.

Something made me peek inside at the unfinished stairs and I decided to go up them. On the second level I saw the remains of a full grown deer. Now you could argue since no door was on this building it was sick and simply went in and climbed the stairs and laid down and died.

But on the bare wood floor surrounding the deer’s body in a semi circle were little burned out votive candles. As if some ritual had been performed. I immediately left somewhat freaked out at the thought.

Then when I was a kid there was the time we moved into a new home in Clark, NJ. It was our first or second day there and I had gone to the basement to think about where an air hockey table might go. There was a half door that opened to a raised storage space in the wall. Nosing around I opened it to find the only thing sitting inside was a belt of ammo that would feed into a machine gun. Real bullets. Not a toy. Not a prop.

I got my dad and he checked it out then called the police. Two officers came and confirmed that’s exactly what it was with all live rounds. They took it and I don’t know if that was the end of it. I was 10 and just wanted my air hockey table set up.

Does everyone in New Jersey have these shocking discovery stories or have I watched The Sopranos one too many times?

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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