Sharing their find to the Facebook group Charity Shop S***, the shopper said they had found what looked like ashes inside a wooden vase.
Upon opening the lid, Carla Smith found the sand-like material and reported it to the charity shop’s staff.
As Carla thought it was a mistake that this had been put on the shelf for sale, she purposely avoided naming the charity shop where it was found but said it was located in Great Barr, Birmingham (a 45-minute drive from Worcester).
Carla Smith found a wooden vase in a charity shop containing what she believes to be ashes (Image: Carla Smith) While she isn’t sure what the ashes were from (human or animal) or if they are even ashes, Carla shared the post to Facebook which generated a discussion with other group members.
Sharing the post with gravestone and skull emojis, she said: “Staff probably should really check inside things before putting them on the shelf”.
The Facebook post has received a lot of reaction from fellow shoppers who enjoy seeing the weird and wonderful things people find in UK charity shops.
One Facebook user commented: “What? Surely they have to be buried somewhere now. Not fair on the charity shop staff at all”.
Carla replied explaining: “I took it to the lady and she said ‘you’ll just have to wash it out’ then I pointed out what the ashes actually were and we were all having a proper laugh about it. They’re great staff and just didn’t realise. (reason I didn’t put shops name) They put it upstairs to decide what to do with it next.”
The charity shop find caused a discussion in the Facebook group (Image: Carla Smith) One user thought the ashes was porridge oats: “Is that porridge?”
Carla replied: “cremated remains”, despite not being certain.
Another person shared a similar story where their family member’s ashes were sold: “My cousin inadvertently sold my grandad in a job lot of vases/ornaments!!”
While some Facebook users found the funny side, others said the situation was “sad” after coming across the post about the charity shop find.
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One said: “This is actually really sad”.
Another commented: “I would have had to take it home and bury the remains somewhere, that’s so sad.
“Probably an old person’s house cleared out and everything went to charity.”
A third shared: “More like people should take care when donating things”.