“These Were Buried” — Mom Finds Two Strange Phones Buried in Her Yard While Gardening

While digging through her garden, a woman ended up unearthing two smartphones, and she has no idea how they got there.

Her child uploaded photos of the bizarre gardening find to Reddit's r/AmIoverreacting sub. Here, they asked other users on the application if they think they're being overly cautious about the discoveries.

@Beatr1x0 writes that their mother happened upon the phones while she was in their family's garden. While digging through the soil, she came across two phones buried deep in the dirt. According to them, the devices were placed side by side, and their condemnation to the earth seemed intentional.

"There were BURIED," they exclaimed in their post. While the Redditor wrote that they didn't have any idea how long the phones were under the earth, they stated that they did have a rough timeline for when they were put underground.

In the post's text, they stated that one of the devices was an Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the other one in their picture looks like it's an AT&T-branded Android phone.

Furthermore, they said that they were able to plug the phones in to learn more about the devices.

The smartphone with the AT&T logo on it, they write, only displays a "red light that flashes when [they] plug it in." As for the iPhone 14, the Reddit user described it as being "beaten pretty badly." This is confirmed with images that they shared of both phones.

Holding the iPhone 14 in their hand, they first show off the device's back, which seems to have undergone severe damage. Its back is cracked, with some of the phone's internals showing through these fissures.

Moreover, one of the three camera lenses appears to have shattered. Also, the iPhone's front glass looks as if it has been cracked significantly as well.

In the post's title, they asked folks on the application if they were overreacting by planning to contact the police regarding the buried devices.

The pictures of the phones sparked a deluge of anecdotes from other users on the application. One top commenter shared how, during COVID, they "found bloody duct tape, a rotted children's shoe ... [and] several pieces of lung rusted metal shards in my front garden bed."

They went on to state that while they did inform the police, local authorities stated that they weren't willing to visit the home due to government-mandated protocols implemented in response to COVID-19.

Ultimately, the cops speculated that since squatters had lived in this Redditor's home beforehand, what they ended up finding was just trash that they buried in the yard.

This makes sense — it's not like squatters are going to get their trash taken out by the city's local waste management business.

Another commenter shared their own tale about finding a knife with a broken tip wrapped inside of a red bandana. Since there were splotches on the knife the Redditor thought could be blood, they decided to notify the police.

However, once authorities arrived, the Reddit user stated they seemed less interested in learning where they found the knife. Rather, the cops began asking them questions about any disputes they might have with neighbors and if they kept any weapons inside of their home.

This experience altered their perception of law enforcement. "That was a crucial moment for me in realizing most cops are not there to help you, their job isn't to protect and serve, it's to arrest people. Maybe not all cops."

In another tale of being let down by cops, someone reported how all of their shoes went missing. While they initially believed a downstairs neighbor was stealing their shoes, it wasn't until the following day that they began to put pieces together.

They had been reorganizing their shoe collection the evening prior, and did so in front of a big landing window. Thus, they concluded that someone must've been watching them go about their work. After reporting the incident to the police, who the Reddit commenter said "acted like [they were] crazy," the following night, they heard a commotion at their front door.

It seemed like someone was still casing their house and wanted to come back for more. They notified the police, who arrived on location, to see that there was a dent in the doorknob. The Reddit user described it as what appeared to be an attempt by an intruder to break in.

Like the situation before it, however, the user on the app said police weren't exactly helpful. They whipped out their flashlights and scanned both their "backyard and front yard" and left. At the end of their post, they wrote that "nothing ever came of it and to this day it bothers [them]."