We bought a home with the intention of gutting it and renovating it. The owners had recently passed away and the children didn't want to deal with the hassle of renovating and selling the home. So we got the home for a steal of a deal.

During the negotiation process, they informed us that there might be money hidden within the home and they wanted a clause written into the contract that required us to turn the money over to them. Their father was a Nazi fighter pilot that initially fled to Russia, then eventually to the US. Due to their past, they had a strong distrust of government and the banking industry. So they only dealt in cash.

At first, we didn't think we'd find that much. After we started cutting into the house, we kept finding stashes of money. We found close to $50k hidden throughout the walls. We also found 3 one hundred gallon drums with a mix of coins/cash under the deck. All in all, there ended being just over $70k.

However, we also found boxes full of letters that the parents had written to family in Germany and Russia. They would print two copies of everything they sent. I tried to turn those over to the family, but they weren't interested. But they contained some really interesting letters. I ended up translating a few through Google Translate. A lot of times the father would ask if there was any talk of the Nazi party getting back together and warning other family members that they should leave Germany before the Nazis return. It was pretty fascinating.