There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to buying a used car instead of a new one. The most obvious advantage, of course, is that buyers can save themselves some serious cash, even on models that are less than a year old. Generally, it is thought that a car which drives 10,000 miles per year will lose up to 60% of its value over the first five years. Not great for the car owner, but excellent for those who are in the market for a second-hand vehicle.

One of the disadvantages of buying used cars is that you don’t always know what condition the car or its engine are in. That is why anyone buying a used car is always advised to get the vehicle checked out by an independent mechanic, and not just take the seller’s word for how great their car is!

There is also the risk that the car’s previous owner had some rather unpleasant habits, or some unusual hobbies and interests, which may have left their impact on the cleanliness of the vehicle’s interior. Sometimes, new owners don’t discover the truth until long after they have shaken hands on the deal and driven the car away. They only discover these unusual and sometimes disagreeable items once they get the car home, and start to give it a good clear out, ready to use themselves.

20 Ultrasound Pictures

Via livestrong.com

One owner of a used car found some very personal photos in the glovebox of their newly-acquired vehicle. No, not that type of photo; what they actually found was the printout of an ultrasound, showing those first few precious images of someone’s baby.

Leaving them in their car must have been a mistake and one that they would probably regret for the rest of their life.

And if it was the father-to-be who had forgotten to retrieve the priceless pictures from the car, you can bet that his partner would never let him forget the terrible thing that he had done.

19 Weapons

Via gearjunkie.com

A worryingly high number of people have reported finding weapons in their used cars, usually hidden in the trunk, under the drivers’ seat, or even squirreled away in what appear to be specially constructed hiding places for illegal items! These weapons range from axes and knives to handguns and bullets, and must leave drivers feeling a little scared of the person from whom they have just bought their new car! Of course, anyone who finds any weapons in a second-hand vehicle should hand them over to the police as soon as possible, in case they have been used in committing a crime.

18 Parking Tickets

Via independent.co.uk

Weapons aren’t the only things that could land you in trouble with the police. A number of people have found piles of unpaid parking tickets stashed in the used cars after they have paid for the vehicle. So long as the paperwork is all filled out correctly, showing the proper date when you took ownership of the car, then you can’t be held responsible for any unpaid tickets and fines, but the record of the previous owner could mean that your new automobile is a target for local cops. Best to come clean about the parking tickets, so you don’t get any unpleasant demands later on.

17 Pokemon CARDS

Via tonsofcardsandmore.com

Kids today are used to playing Pokemon Go on their smartphones, but back in the 1990s, youngsters went crazy for a much more low-tech pastime connected with the popular video game; collecting and playing with Pokemon cards.

Given that these cards soon went out of fashion – long before they were replaced by Pokemon Go in fact – it is not a huge surprise that one driver found an impressive collection of these cards in the seat pocket of his new second-hand car.

The previous owner’s kids had obviously become bored with Pokemon and forgotten all about their cards, which could now be worth thousands of dollars.

16 Squashed Birthday Cake

Via momlovesbaking.com

This next weird item proved quite a mystery to the new owner of the second-hand car where it was found. After getting the used vehicle home, a strange box was found in the trunk of the car, and after opening the box, the new owner realized that they had also acquired a rather stale, and very squashed birthday cake. This had obviously been bought to celebrate a special occasion, but whether it had been squashed first and abandoned, or forgotten about and squashed later was unclear. Either way, the new owner got rid of the cake before anyone was tempted to see how it tasted…

15 Ashes In An Urn

Via ebay.com

Finding a squashed birthday cake in the back of a used car may feel a little sad – did the person celebrating their birthday even get a cake in the end? – but at least you can throw a cake in the bin without worrying your conscience.

How to deal with finding an urn which contains the ashes of someone’s deceased loved ones is a lot more difficult to figure out.

If you bought the car from the former owner, at least you know how to contact them, but the ensuing chat is guaranteed to be the most awkward conversation of anyone’s life.

14 Wedding Ring

Via enta-web.org

Wedding rings are notoriously easy to lose, although to be fair they are not often misplaced in the car unless motorists take their jewelry off to drive. When someone found a lost wedding ring wedged into the back seat of their used car, they had to try and figure out whether it belonged to the last owner, or perhaps even one of the owners before that. Anyone finding wedding rings or sentimental pieces of jewelry often have to rely on inscriptions to track down the owners, many of whom will have long ago given up on ever finding their precious ring ever again.

13 Five-A-Side Soccer Kit

via bownet

When the new owner of a second-hand vehicle found an entire set of soccer jerseys, shorts, and socks for a five-a-side team, they could well imagine the panic that someone, somewhere was experiencing as the date of their next fixture rapidly approached!

Luckily for the new owner, the soccer kit had been washed and even pressed, so at least they didn’t have to deal with the smell from a pile of dirty sports gear.

Let’s hope they managed to get in touch with the car’s previous owner in time for their next game, or the team might have had to turn out in their own second-hand gear.

12 Cats

Via allfactsaboutcats.org

Cat lovers should probably skip this entry on the list of weirdest things found in used cars, as there isn’t always a happy ending for the moggies. One man did acquire a healthy cat when he bought a new car; after checking with the previous owners that the cat didn’t belong to them, he decided to go ahead and keep his new feline friend. There wasn’t such a happy ending for another cat which had obviously found its way into the engine cavity. Sadly, the new owner, upon checking the engine for any problems, was shocked to find a deceased cat wedged into one of the gaps.

11 Human Tooth

via easy clear pool

A deceased animal is undoubtedly the worst thing you can find in a used car, but the motorist who found a human tooth on the floor of their second-hand vehicle would certainly say that their experience was a close second!

A child’s tooth might have been a little less weird, but how a grown adult lost one of their choppers while they were casually driving along the highway is a mystery that will probably never be solved.

Best to throw the tooth away, and try and forget it ever happened. After you’ve given the interior of your car a deep clean, of course.

10 Prosthetic Limb

Via home-alchemy.com

At least it is easy to understand how someone managed to get on with life without a tooth. It’s a bit harder to figure out how they are coping having left their prosthetic limb in the back of a used car! One new owner of a second-hand vehicle had to trace the owner of a false leg which had been stashed in the trunk; who knows how the person to whom the missing leg belonged was getting around. Hopefully they had a spare, otherwise, they were going to end up stuck in one place until the new owner of their car could get it to them.

9 Odd Shoes

Via lipsticklettucelycra.co.uk

A lot of car owners keep a few key items of clothing in their cars, just in case. In fact, lots of people keep their gym kit in the car, so that they are able to exercise when the motivation strikes. That also means, however, that there is often dirty gym kit in the trunk of the car which hasn’t been dealt with yet.

After taking ownership of a second-hand car, one motorist spotted something unusual which had been left behind in their new motor – a pair of gym shoes.

Not any pair of gym shoes, mind you. This was an odd pair of gym shoes, leaving the old owner with two useless shoes of their own.

8 Furry Handcuffs

Via tessdawson.blogspot.com

Finding a pair of furry handcuffs in the back of your used car definitely creates more questions than answers. The best case scenario is that they were bought as a joke for the previous owner, perhaps as part of a bachelor or bachelorette party and simply never got thrown out. The worst case scenario doesn’t bear thinking about, especially if you intend your used car to be a wholesome family vehicle. These furry handcuffs are more usually sold in joke shops than on other “specialist” websites, so if you do find them in your second-hand car, don’t be too worried.

7 SatNav

Via blog.greenflag.com

When it comes to most of the weird items on this list, there are three ways that the new owner of the used car can deal with their unusual discoveries; try and return it to the proper owner, throw it in the trash, or in the case of the concealed weapons, let the police know.

However, a surprisingly large number of people leave their SatNav system in their old cars when they sell them.

This is a case of finders’ keepers if someone has been daft enough to leave an expensive piece of tech in their car. Just remember to make sure that the maps are up-to-date.

6 Inflatable Sheep

via getty images

As with the furry handcuffs previously, the mind boggles as to why anyone would even buy an inflatable sheep, let alone leave one behind when they sell their car to a new owner. Again, it’s probably best to imagine that the unusual item was bought for someone as a gag, or maybe even as a rather peculiar gift for a kid. Either way, the inflatable sheep is unlikely to be something that the old owner of your car wants back in a hurry, so your best bet is probably to throw it away, and forget that you ever saw it.

5 One Glass Eye

Via transplantandlife.uk

Another entry on the list of the weirdest things found in used cars is the scary discovery one motorist made, when they found themselves the not-so-proud owners of someone else’s glass eye.

As with the prosthetic limb, it begs the question how the previous owner of the vehicle is managing without their glass eye – although at least they don’t need that to actually get around.

The chances are that the person from whom they bought the car was looking high and low for their missing ocular prosthesis, so let’s hope they did the decent thing and sent it back.

4 Money

via getty images

Loose change is probably one of the least weird things new owners have found in their used cars. After all, everyone has dropped a few coins on the floor of their vehicles now and then, and not bothered to retrieve them when they rolled right under the seat. Some drivers have managed to make a few dollars, thanks to the collection of coins on the floor and hidden away in the nooks and crannies of their used car – not enough to pay for the cost of a vehicle, of course, but maybe enough to be able to afford a professional car wash.

3 Snake

via muv-x

From the very pleasant surprise of finding a few dollars’ worth of change on the floor of a used car to the very unpleasant surprise of finding a live snake hidden away somewhere in the engine or bodywork of your second-hand vehicle.

Snakes slithering their way into the engines of cars is weirdly common, throughout the world.

It appears that the cold-blooded creatures are attracted by the warmth of the engine, but can soon find their way into the interior of the car, often through the vents and sometimes while the car is actually being driven by the new owner!

2 CDs

Via videoblocks.com

Most brand new cars are now fitted with hi-tech, smartphone compatible in-car entertainment systems, allowing you to access the internet if you want to play music, find directions to your destination or even to call or text friends.

Second-hand cars, on the other hand, are much more likely to boast more basic entertainment systems, such as a CD player.

Best of all, you can sometimes acquire a free CD when you buy a used car, simply because the previous owner forgot to check the CD player was empty before they handed over the keys. There is no guarantee that this free CD is going to be any good, of course…

1 Flux Capacitor

Via pinterest.com

Depending on your thoughts on the Back to the Future movies, this next weird discovery would either be the coolest thing ever or just another piece of trash to remove from your used car. One driver found a home-made flux capacitor hidden behind the back seat of his new used car when he started to clear it out; luckily it wasn’t plugged in to a power source, but he still said that he felt a little nervous about going over 88 mph (the speed which the DeLorean in the movies needs to reach in order to travel forwards and backwards in time).

Sources: Dailymail.co.uk, mirror.co.uk, middrive.com,netdoctor.co.uk,upi.com