A woman thought she’d bagged a bargain with a second-hand sofa – only to be horrified to discover ‘thousands of chewed fingernails and toenails’ lurking down the side while fishing for the remote.
Jess Taylor likedned the revolting find to like something ‘out of a horror film’ and was forced to scoop out the offending items that included feathers, sweet wrappers, elastic bands and clumps of hair.
The 29-year-old administrator and receptionist said she and her partner audibly gasped when they discovered the vile haul and said they sounded like ‘uncooked rice’ when vacuumed up.
The pair, who had happily sat on the cream fabric recliner for a week before realizing what lurked beside them, have now decided to keep their TV remote on the bookshelf next to the couch.
Jess, from Larne, Northern Ireland, said: “Seeing all that was like something out of a horror film, it was so big.
“It just sounded like hoovering up rice, it was horrific. We’d been sat on it for a week blissfully unaware.
“On Monday night we did the daily routine of ‘where’s the remote?’.
“My boyfriend started checking around all the blankets as it’s usually wrapped in one of those.
“He stuck his hand down the side of the sofa and pulled out some sweetie wrappers and sweets.
“Then I put my hand down the side of the sofa and was pulling out chunks of stuff – we both gasped in horror.
“There were thousands of fingernails, they were ripped or chewed off.
“Once we realized how bad it actually was I went and got the hoover. I have some attachments for cleaning the car and put those on and just stuck it down all the sides of the two sofas.”
Jess, who is originally from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, bought the sofa after eight-month-old staffie Dexter broke the last one by leaping onto it.
Jess said: “The original sofa I had I bought new but my eight-month-old dog Dexter had the zoomies, bounded onto it and the leg broke.
“I kept an eye out for a new sofa but I just thought as Dexter is young I would be so protective over this sofa and it would take such a huge chunk of my savings.
“I looked online and spotted a second-hand one, I put throws over the sofa anyway so I didn’t mind.
“It was from a fella that buys and sells furniture. It was £325 for a three-piece and a two-seater but then he knocked £85 off for my old one.”
Environmentally-conscious Jess said the sofas were delivered on January 24th and everything seemed fine until the remote went missing.
Jess said: I feel very much that things shouldn’t be taken to the dump just because they’ve had one home, I think it’s more environmentally friendly to rescue stuff if you can.
“But there definitely was a line that was crossed.”
Jess wrote on Facebook: “Recently my sofa broke and I wasn’t in a position to buy a brand new one.
“I also knew buying a new one would lead to a lot of stress with two dogs bounding about the house, I’d be so protective of it.
“This leads me to looking for a second-hand sofa.
“I found a decent-looking set, smoke and pet-free home, once they arrived they did not smell or give me any reason to turn my nose up. Phew, that worked out!
“UNTIL….tonight my partner was doing the daily ‘where’s the remote, you have it’ routine. (I didn’t have it).
“The remote was down the side of the sofa, when sticking his hand down to grab it.. *take a breath and sit down if you have got this far*..
“He felt a load of yuck.. he pulled out said yuck and it was a handful of sweetie wrappers AND FINGERNAILS.
“Upon inspection and multiple gags later, we retrieved not hundreds but THOUSANDS OF FINGERNAILS of varying sizes. I don’t know the rate of nail growth this person has but they must have been on some kind of growth supplements, or had about 10 extra hands/feet.
“We then hoovered out the remaining nails, it sounded like uncooked rice being hoovered up.
“My goodness I have never been SOOOO disgusted in my entire life.
“I would have uploaded a picture but it will be in violation of almost every law on this planet.
“TIP – check your second-hand stuff thoroughly! I learned the hard way!”
Horrified social media users flooded the comments page saying how revolting the fingernail haul was.
One person wrote: “Omg how old was that couch cause that’s years of build-up of clipped nails.
“It takes a lot to gross me out and this sure did it. How incredibly disgusting lol.
Another commented: “I’m actually gagging, could only read half way.”
One person wrote: “That’s not normal. Sure these people weren’t serial killers?”
