This is a story from my local area–but worthy of some attention from fans of the macabre or slightly paranormal..
In Auburn, PA, a tiny little hamlet in Schuylkill County, a secret existed behind the walls of a quaint house..
FOX 43 ran a story about the Bretzius and their discovery of a disturbing secret behind their walls: It was insulated with dead animals..
WNEP interviewed the family .. as expected, Kaiji Bretzius was a little shocked and horrified by what was hidden in their home..
We were shocked, horrified, and disgusted
Fair to say that would be the emotional of us would experience if faced with the same circumstances, no?
WNEP’s Jackie de Tore goes on to report more:
The mother of four said they first found animals in the walls back in 2012 and have been removing the items ever since.
The dead animals were all wrapped in old newspapers from the 1930s and 40s.
She said when they got a home inspection before they bought the place in Auburn, the inspector didn’t find a thing.
“We got the radon inspection. We looked for everything. We didn’t know to look for chickens.”
The family said when they bought the house in 2011, it was their dream home because they weren’t going to have to do any work, but now that’s all they’ve been doing.
Insurance isn’t covering the situation since the corpses of the animals were there long before this family bought what they thought would be their dream house.
A dream became a nightmare according to their account. They aren’t sure if all the dead animals are out..
Various reports indicate that the animals were most likely placed there because of the old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of pow-wowing–an American folk and magic belief held by the Dutch in the Keystone state decades ago, taking from even older traditions that link back to Germany..
So what a tale! Witch doctors and powwows.. the Dutch. Home ownership. Undoubtedly a perogie and sausage sandwich will show up sooner or later..
But there are some not buying it.
The family has chosen to begin a GO FUND ME campaign to raise more money to get more dead animals from out behind the walls.. but at least a few viewers of WNEP and readers of the article aren’t believing the tale..
A few snippets from a few commentators on the WNEP article:
Get freakin real! Mold? There is NO WAY, NO HOW in the WORLD, mold will be caused from a dried up old carcass from the 1930s-1940s. There’s no moisture there. There wouldn’t even be a smell. Creepy? Yeah. Insurance claim? Come on. Welcome to home ownership. Inspectors can’t find everything. They don’t have x-ray vision.
Another:
GoFundMe? How about this: go after whatever home inspector who didn’t do his job, or the previous owners who didn’t disclose the Dead Animal Insulation. Asking for handouts is so damned cocky.
This:
Someone should do a fundraiser to help remove the bones and spices. Maybe a few of the hunting clubs, wait, wait, I know……….THEY COULD SELL T-SHIRTS………
This one from ‘neighbor’ is interesting:
This was actually my aunt and uncle’s house. They lived there for close to 50 years before it was sold, but they did move in it after the critters would have been put in the walls and I can honestly say that they had no clue that any of this was there. I visited there many times growing up and they raised 4 boys and we never were sick or noticed odd smells. It must have been exposed when the walls were ripped out in construction.
Regardless of a few ‘spicy’ comments–powwow pun certainly intended there–the Go Fund Me campaign is already raising some cash.. The story is also making some national news now that various other ABC and FOX affiliates are picking it up.
One comment the Go Fund Me account perhaps said it best.
Look on the bright side… It’s not haunted
As long as the powwow inspired Dutch medicine man in Pennsylvania got his ancient potions and magic right of course.
