35 Unexpected Discoveries That Took People by Complete Surprise

There’s something so beautiful about gazing at brightly colored oranges sticking out through lush green trees…that is, it’s beautiful until you realize that one orange is gazing back!

It could be some cute kid’s idea of art, or could it be a secretly hidden camera that wants you to get close enough for perfect facial recognition? No, it couldn’t be. But seeing these orange eyes might make people think twice about picking the orange…

In this small crevice that very few people will ever walk by lives this stucco man, who looks like he’s on the run – but ironically can’t move at all. At a glance, the shadow does not look friendly.

But once you realize that this little guy is stationary and not about to jump on you and ask for your wallet, the relief is that much sweeter. It’s unexpected art like this that makes us believe in the good in the world.

Few people can resist the lure of delicious McDonald’s, offering satisfaction for no effort at unbeatable prices (can anyone say “Value Menu”?) No doubt this beverage was a large, refreshing cola for just $1.

But with so little work to prepare and consume it…would it really have been so hard to just get the empty cup to the trash can afterwards? Apparently it was, for one person who left the cup inside a wall they were working on – for years to come.

Little green clovers have been a popular symbol of luck for a long time. They naturally grow with three leaves, but the occasional four-leaf clover is believed to make its finder extremely lucky.

But no one’s ever heard of a five or six-leaf clover…which made this seven-leaf clover a completely unexpected find! We’d certainly go into the rest of our lives feeling like luck is on our side if we found one of these gems.

The battle between parents, kids, and a daily dose of vegetables has been raging on since the beginning of time. Many children prefer unhealthy foods because they taste so much better, and have a stubborn streak to boot.

But if parents won’t back down, kids might resort to extreme measures to get away with skipping their veggies – like hiding them in the last place you’d ever look. This was surely an unexpected and probably smelly surprise waiting for dad.

The eternal struggle of having glasses: when they’re misplaced, they’re impossible to find without having them to help you look. Going on to bake a cake without glasses probably wasn’t the brightest idea in the first place. But finding them in the cake must have been totally unexpected.

And it’s an extra good thing that they were seen before they were eaten – we shudder to think what would have happened to the person who chomped down on them…

Oh, did you think this was something out of a fairytale? Think again. This mysterious, medieval tower sits in the middle of the forest in England, surrounded by nothing but nature and making it quite an unexpected find for travelers passing through.

As romantic as it might look, it is much more haunting than happy. These types of towers were built as prisons, reserved for those who committed the most serious of crimes. Try to escape, and you’d be even less likely to survive outside than inside back then.

We live in a world where the walls that surround us are often smooth and unblemished, making it hard to imagine and easy to forget that there’s more inside of them. But when it comes time to demolish a house, there are often many surprises in store – some less pleasant than others.

This wall came with a delightfully unexpected surprise, though: somebody had left behind a mural! It could have been anything, but fortunately it was one full of carefree beauty and childlike happiness.

As far as most human experience has taught us, fish don’t just fall out of the sky. In fact, there’s even an old saying that extremely unlikely things will happen before the heavens rain fishes. But there’s one place on Earth where that’s consistently not true: the city of Yoro, Honduras.

Each year, sometimes even twice, raging storms pick the fish up out of the sea and rain them on the town. To these tourists though, it was totally unexpected.

This might look like any other beautiful curbside shop at a glance, it’s so intricate and full of detail! But after a second glance, it’s easy to see that this is a TINY version of a very realistic-looking store.

Either The Borrowers is a true story after all, or there’s an artist somewhere with lots of talent and very small hands. Whether it’s a bread, cheese or chocolate shop, we’d love to go inside and buy whatever they’re selling.

World, listen up – we’ve been lied to. The laws of physics have been broken. They told this leaf it could be anything, so it decided it wanted to be a petal. Well, it got halfway there!

This unique plant limb is half leaf, half petal. Who knows what else it can accomplish? And that goes for the rest of us, too. This leaf is more than just a piece of rare beauty – it’s a reminder to never give up on your dreams.

Mario may most popularly be a plumber, but anybody from the ’90s will remember that he also has a side gig working as a doctor – Dr Mario! The clinic might be a serious place, but it’s hard not to smile knowing that Dr Mario is watching over you…literally.

His position slightly off to the side of the front doors makes us wonder if he was put there with the clinic’s blessing, but who could take him down after that?

A smiley face is usually a welcoming sight, happy and bright and full of kindness. But it takes on a whole different personality when it’s giant and looking down on you, hiding in an unexpected place to take innocent people by surprise.

Not to mention it’s blocking the whole sky in an alleyway this tiny! We have to wonder what business it has here, taking people by surprise in a manner that might seem more frightening than friendly.

As soon as one person decided they could fit the whole world in their hands, it was only a matter of time before another had to come along and fit the world on a pole, too.

We’d love to believe nature just made this miracle possible with its mysterious and often unexpected powers, but this was more likely the work of an artist who chipped away to rusty perfection. We love its earthy, realistic feel.

If you could go decades back in time and explain to a little girl what the future would look like, what would you tell her? That’s what one person ended up asking themselves after they dug up this unexpected discovery in their backyard: a time capsule from at least a couple of decades before.

Judging by its fairytale case and beaded contents, it belonged to a little girl in the ’80s or ’90s, who’s somewhere all grown up today!

This does not compute. The old saying of a square peg trying to fit in a round hole suddenly seems less like a metaphor and much more real. Can a CD by any other shape still play as sweet? The answer is yes!

This square CD was made this way, and still plays music perfectly normally, even in a regular machine. We’re not sure if the square shape serves any real purpose, but at least this CD can still enjoy the right to be whatever shape it wants.

It’s hard to tell whether this Super Nintendo was being repurposed into a work of art, or an extra brick for wall construction. Video game art may be one of the biggest artistic frontiers today, but it seems like this particular attempt kind of missed the memo.

Either way, it’s better than throwing all that plastic away at least. Somebody should go fix her up so that people walking by can stop and enjoy a quick game!

When Reese Witherspoon was filming the tale of one women’s enlightening and often infuriating journey along the Pacific Crest Trail, the role required her to throw her hiking boot right over the edge of a cliff in a moment of serious angst.

The crew never found that shoe, but lo and behold, some other hikers did a couple of years later. The shoemakers even confirmed that it was indeed the same shoe, but really, who else’s red-laced boot would be abandoned in the middle of the wilderness?

Do you ever ask yourself why pennies even exist anymore? They’re not worth much, and with the rise of plastic over paper and coin payments, it’s rare to pull pennies out for just about anything these days. Many people wonder what to do with all the pennies they still have – but someone in the forest had the right idea.

These poor hikers might have found a penny fortune, but since they’re quite stuck in there, it looks like there’s no chance they’ll leave their unexpected discovery any richer.

Don’t we adults tell kids over and over how important it is to be prepared? Finally, there’s one kid who took that advice to heart. In case of an emergency, he’s prepared a runaway box to keep himself (and his family, we hope) safe.

The nerf weapon and monopoly money might not get him far, but at least he has the right idea for the future. Whoever gets to call him family will no doubt feel safer for it.

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For many people, the shower is nothing short of a sacred space. Refreshingly hot water cleans the body on the outside, while a bit of privacy helps clear one’s head on the inside.

But just when this unassuming bather thought that their shower couldn’t get any better, they reached for the shampoo and grabbed a bottle…of delectable cab sav! Because is anyone ever truly relaxed without a glass of red in hand?

Norway is known for its vast uninhabited spaces filled with beautiful nature – specifically its epic fjords and densely giant forests. But what not as many people know is that its people also have a devoted love of trolls.

While stumbling upon a larger-than-life-sized troll might be unexpected to tourists, local Norwegians tend to breathe easier at the sight of their favorite creatures. They love trolls so much that they put them everywhere, but mostly in nature where it’s believed they belong.

Kids always want to eat candy, but that doesn’t mean that they always should. Moms, on the other hand, know better. Lollipops are made of 99% sugar (we’re not quite sure what the other 1% is), which promises an energy rush no one has time for.

So a lollipop can easily go unnoticed in the cupboard for too long – and the next time this mom saw this lollipop, ants had come to claim every last bit, but somehow leaving the plastic perfectly intact. So generous of them.

For some reason, the last place you’d ever expect to actually find a pearl is exactly where they actually come from: in an oyster! Oysters create pearls when their insides get rid of a variety of minerals and other materials that get inside the oyster. The result is just beautiful.

But not all oysters have pearls, and by the time an oyster reaches anyone’s dinner plate, the likelihood a precious pearl will be inside is slim to none. These folks were certainly – and quite pleasantly –surprised!

…It’s going to have an identity crisis. Although most people these days have all the math tools they’ll ever need in their phones or on their computers, handheld calculators were an extremely handy tool for most of the 20th century.

And in the early days of home computers, before smartphones were a thing or even a thought, somebody had bigger plans for the little mouse – which led this one to be two inventions in one.

Nothing says determination quite like a mushroom that’s grown to almost full capacity within the space of the glass bulb he was born in.

This mushroom will not be chained down by the confines the world tries to put on him! We should all be more like this mushroom, or at least help him live his best life by cracking that glass open for him to grow out of.

According to this picture, no handle can be too trustworthy. But this mashing tool’s broken handle makes us wonder: just what was so strenuous when using it that the plastic handle shattered? Ideally, you want any food that’s getting mashed to be extremely soft already before getting busy.

But whatever happened, it must have been a relief to know that the broken tool wasn’t broken after all. And we hope no one is out there with plastic shards in their hands.

Clothes may be a necessity, but fashion exists to make a statement. Usually the message is loud and proud for everyone to see, but not in this case – these Lucky jeans come with a secret, and the only people who get to know it are the people who get to take the jeans off.

Everyone knows Victoria’s secret, but Lucky’s secret remains known by only a few around the world…until now!

So that’s where the keys went! We’ve all been there, looking high and low for the place where we set our keys down just hours before. They’re rarely as easy to find as they should be. But of all the places to leave them, it’s hard to imagine how they went from the front door to the pot on the stove.

Yesterday’s leftover certainly won’t be high on the list of places to look for keys first, so these were most likely someone’s unexpected surprise the next day at work.

It was an ordinary day when one woman went to the bathroom to do her business as usual, until the most unexpected thing happened: she felt the strange sensation of something wet touching her skin from inside the toilet bowl.

Well, toilets do have water, but she decided to take a closer look…and found herself staring at a (debatably) cute frog! The bathroom isn’t always the ideal place for an introduction, but he’s part of the family now.

They say money doesn’t grow on trees and we might know why! Apparently, it grows inside soap bars, as this lady found a perfectly folded 20 dollar bill in her soap. At first, it looked like something strange was hiding in the middle of the bar so she decided to investigate.

Upon melting the soap away, the woman discovered that the thing she saw in the center of it was actually money. There is no way this 20 dollar bill got here by accident. We’re not sure if this soap was a part of a giveaway or some special campaign but it really is a rare find!

A woman found an empty box of cereal on the counter but that wasn’t the reason behind her surprised reaction. In fact, she found a wedding ring at the bottom of the box. At first, it seemed like she had found some random person’s ring but then she put two and two together.

The ring actually belonged to her husband who snacked on those cereals earlier. We’re still not sure how he didn’t notice that the ring fell off his finger. However, it’s good luck that she managed to find it before it was thrown away forever.

Who doesn’t love a good loaf of banana bread? We’ve seen all sorts of banana bread and cake varieties but this one is surely a first. Someone found a full-size metal spoon in the middle of the cake like it was one of the ingredients.

Whoever made this loaf didn’t pay attention to what they were putting inside it. Somehow, a spoon found its way to the dough and wasn’t discovered until it was too late. We wonder what the cake tasted like!

When the bag says “organic lettuce,” you better believe there is a real frog inside! Someone decided to stock up on some healthy lettuce but they had no idea that there was a surprise waiting for them inside.

A real frog was hiding inside the bag and, thanks to the tiny holes in the packaging, it was able to survive all the way to the supermarket. I hope someone set it free after they found it trapped in the bag!

While we are aware that there are some really big shoes out there (basketball players, we’re talking to you!), this is not really something you would expect to find at GoodWill. This grandmother managed to find the biggest shoe she had ever seen in her life.

This was a size 20 shoe that not many people get to wear. It looks more like some silly prop rather than actual footwear. Still, a pretty unusual thing to come across on an ordinary day.

Sometimes, a strange discovery does not have to be an item or a place. In this case, it’s a person. This girl went to a Coldplay concert and ended up finding her lookalike—she was even wearing the same clothes!

This seemed like too big of a coincidence, given that the two people in the picture look absolutely the same. It almost makes us think that this is some sort of a time travel proof or a glitch in the matrix, as the conspiracy theorists might say!

Having trouble hiding your candy from kids? Here’s a good solution! Just put your chocolate bars inside a bag of vegetables and you’re good to go! You can be sure that no one will come near your candy if it looks like edamame.

In this case, a woman found her husband’s Snickers stash in the fridge in some vegetable baggy. We must admit, this was a really clever idea to begin with! However, he will have to think smarter if he wants to hide his candy supply from his wife!

Here’s another situation where someone found a lookalike by accident. However, in this case, the lookalike is actually a centuries-old painting. That’s right, this girl came to a museum but she had no idea what she was about to find.

The Renaissance painting behind her portrays a woman that looks just like her! Imagine walking into a museum or an art gallery only to find a picture of yourself hanging on a wall! Things get even weirder when you realize that the photo was painted centuries before you were born.

We’ve seen all sorts of rocks in our lifetime, from large to small sizes and even those oddly shaped ones that remind you of your first pet. However, one thing we have not yet come across is a real-life fossil on a rock.

This person found a huge rock on his porch and, in an attempt to move it, he flipped it over only to find a fossil on the bottom. What a magnificent find! It will certainly be a story to remember.

Although we certainly advocate for glass recycling, it was an unexpected but totally pleasant surprise when these hikers found a whole colony of clovers who commandeered an abandoned glass bottle and moved into it.

And it only adds to the magic that the little guys seemed to have confined themselves to their new home, sticking together inside – just like humans do! Nature’s ability to adapt to the inventive world of humans never ceases to impress.

Going through the belongings of your older family members is always full of unexpected surprises, like trinkets from their time that have otherwise disappeared from everyday life – or like an old planning notebook, in this case!

There may not be much use for this outdated notebook anymore, but it certainly goes to show how different the quality of everyday items was back in the day. We wouldn’t mind these leather-bound gold-lined pages making a comeback today…

Gold coins are no longer a staple currency, so even though they’re still valuable, few people pay with them or even have any anymore. Getting your hands on one can be rare, unless they’re sought out. But whoever found this one got an unexpected bonus: it’s painted in beautiful color!

It’s an homage to Sacagawea, the Native American featured on this coin who helped pioneers Lewis & Clark navigate their journey at the age of just 16.

First, there was mother nature. Then there were humans, and humans decided that they needed to move a little more quickly than nature had made possible, so they made cars. Made of manufactured materials like plastic and rubber and metal from head to toe, a car is not the place you’d expect nature to make a home, but nothing is impossible!

It’s not every day that nature and technology find a way to work together, so when it happens, it’s unexpected and truly special.

Everything represented by vast bodies of water is so romantic already: the freedom of a sunny refreshing day at the beach, setting sail away from land and all of its problems, or just getting a beautiful glimpse of this liquid yin to our land-based yang.

But can you imagine going out for a swim and having this actual picture of seaside lovers swept into your hands by the water itself? Just the unexpected magic of the world at work again.

Here’s one of the most valuable items people have accidentally discovered in usual places. This married couple moved into a new house without even suspecting that there was a treasure waiting for them.

Two years after moving in, they decided to renovate the kitchen and they found a safe in the floor. The safe contained a great sum of money, $51 080 to be precise, and a rare bottle of bourbon, along with a mysterious book. Their renovations must have really paid off!