A thrifty Washington State shopper got more than she bargained for when she made a macabre discovery inside of a $3.99 urn that she ended up purchasing from a local Goodwill store last month and her story has since gone viral.
Jodie Chase, a 24-year-old social media coordinator for two Seattle restaurants who has been collecting vintage items from thrift stores and other outlets where unique collectibles are sold was going through bins at the popular emporium for low-cost second-hand items when she laid her hands upon the urn that caught her eye, a gray vase with a blue ribbon tied around it and the name “Toby Cava” written on a sticker attached to the bottom.
“After I got out of high school, I started thrifting more often and started coming across cool, old items and got interested,” she told Fox News Digital.
“It just kind of shocked me that there was an urn there,” Chase said of the item which she recognized as a cremation urn. “So I grabbed it and felt that it had some weight to it and looked at the bottom and saw that I had a name.”
“Then, I unscrewed it and saw that there were ashes inside,” Chase continued. “It was just kind of shocking and struck me and I thought, ‘Who would donate this? This is sad. It must have been a mistake or someone must have misplaced it.’ So, I thought maybe I could find someone who it was connected to [and] give it back.”
After unsuccessfully trying to flag down a Goodwill employee, Chase said, “I just put it in our cart and me and my partner were like, ‘Well, if we don’t get it, this will maybe go to the landfill or something.’ We thought we should do it service and spread the ashes somewhere nice or try to find at least a good home for it. So, we decided to buy it.”
“It was just a cheap, small purchase that I thought maybe could help somebody if they were looking for it, but I haven’t found anyone actually connected to it,” she said, deciding to post a video of the urn to her TikTok account.
https://www.tiktok.com/@chasejosie/video/7215794788610641198?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7211866800806676014
“People have made parody videos claiming that it was a story that related to them and basically just making videos for views that are fake… so unfortunate that people are making dark jokes out of it,” Chase said, remarking on reactions to her video.
In an update posted to TikTok, Chase said that her video caught the attention of Goodwill and that she was contacted by the organization which asked her to bring back the urn so that it could be returned to the rightful owner who may have erroneously discarded it and also that “Toby Cava” was most likely a pet and not a human.
@chasejosie Replying to @enid_coleslaw6 update on the urn found at Goodwill
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“When we became aware of Josie’s discovery we quickly reached out to her and have since retrieved the urn and ashes,” said Alyssa Grigg who is the senior director of marketing and communications for Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington
“We have strong reason to believe this particular urn contains the remains of an animal, not a human,” Grigg told Fox News Digital. “This was an egregious miss that should have never made it to the sales floor.”
“I fell in love with vintage clothing and began researching and collecting unique pieces from thrift stores, vintage shops, and antique stores,” Chase told Newsweek. “Items made 20+ years ago were typically made with high quality materials and made to last—I love finding unique pieces that you can’t find in stores today, and being able to recreate time period specific outfits with my collection.”
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