Footage of the bizarre discovery was shared to TikTok by the homeowners, and some believe it could have been deliberately hidden by a spy at their property during World War II
A couple who are in the process of extending their home have been left astounded by a bizarre discovery in their garden.
Mum-of-two, Hannah, took to TikTok to share the intriguing find at their property in the southeast of England expressing her “concerned” feelings. She posted with a caption: “Anyone have any idea what this is? Should I be worried?”
Her began with her retrieving a small yellow sign from the soil that was adorned with several numbers and the names of major European cities. “It looks like it’s from World War 1 or World War 2, but I’m not sure” she commented.
Accompanied by her husband, the camera shifts to show a deep hole they made for planting rhododendrons. And Hannah struck something hard with her trowel, she noted: “The further down I go… it’s quite a big, hollow thing, which obviously now I am going to dig up to see what it is.”
She then reached out to her TikTok audience pondering: “Anyone come across something like this before? Should I stop? Should I be worried?” Nonetheless, determined to uncover the truth, Hannah later uploaded a follow-up clip.
The additional footage kicked off with Hannah’s spouse cautiously excavating around the item until he could pry it apart using a spade. The revelation underneath showed electrical parts intermingled with rust, while the second segment, trickier to extricate, appeared to house similar mechanical components.
Hannah was convinced they had stumbled upon an old radio by “Hellesens London” – a manufacturer of transistor batteries, confirming her suspicions.
Speaking about the unexpected discovery, she closed: “We’re not going to be keeping it for obvious reasons. We will keep the signage though as it’s pretty cool.” Further scrutiny revealed that the figures on the find were, in fact, radio frequencies.
TikTok users were quick to express their interest, some of who suggesting the radio might have been buried intentionally. One person exclaimed: “An old radio from the war, they were most probably spies so they buried it.”
Echoing this sentiment, another mused: “Why would someone bury a crude radio during the war? Sounds like you found a spy’s stash or part of it. Keep looking.”
A third user, intrigued by the artifact’s origins, stated: “That’s a WWII-era radio, likely used for military communications or navigation. The Plessey London marking suggests it’s British, not German!
They continued: “You could look up WWII crash maps for your area to see if there were any downed planes. Likely, especially over Essex/Surrey/Kent areas. This is a rare historical find! It could link to a crashed plane, a military base, or even secret wartime operations. Definitely worth investigating further. It could be from a wartime aircraft, a field radio, or an old radar system. If this area saw action in WWII, it might be part of lost or buried military equipment.”
Meanwhile, a fourth individual offered some adventurous advice: “You could possibly have more items like that buried in your garden, maybe get a metal detector and have a sweep round.”
