Guy Uncovers An Odd Box In A Dumpster Filled With Pages Containing Cryptic 'Instructions'

Surely, this is no big deal, right? Trash tips turn up all sorts of weird finds every day, after all. But this one got some publicity a few years later, when a user shared the find on Reddit. He made a post for the social media platform headed, “I was told that you’d like to see this Box of Crazy illustrations.”

The Reddit user who shared the picture is a guy called Dan Wickham. Yet his post about the curious box in 2013 wasn’t actually the beginning of the story. No, the man claimed that a buddy had turned up the weird receptacle in a dumpster in Asheville five years before he’d posted about it. 

The box was nothing special, except that it seemed to have been made by hand. According to the website Mysterious Universe, the simple container carried a handle, locks and it had a hinged lid. The receptacle apparently measured about 2.5 by 3 feet. The outside was unmarked, and there really wasn’t anything remarkable about it. Though it had the perhaps unappealing whiff of “basements and dampness.”

So, nothing about it really screamed “take me home” to Wickham’s friend, but still, he was curious. When the latter levered it open, though, the contents astonished him. The things were much weirder than he had thought they’d be. Confused, the guy then decided to get a second opinion on the craziness, and the box winged its way to Wickham.

Given his friend’s description of the contents, you can be sure that Wickham was looking forward to finding out for himself what was in the box. And he wasn’t disappointed. After peaking inside, Wickham found what he described as “a whole box of crazy.” The container was stuffed with pieces of paper, and the content contained some astonishing information.

But no sooner had Wickham posted on Reddit than more came out about the story. A woman responded to his posting with her own addition. The lady said things all began back in the 1990s in the state of Florida. Back then, this woman had moved into a house she’d rented for cheap and found it stuffed with loads of clutter.

Now, that wouldn’t be particularly meaningful if it wasn’t for the identity of the tenant who had preceded the woman. She claimed that it had been Daniel Christiansen. Who’s that, though? Well, the man who signed some of the materials in the box used that name. And Christiansen had left a heck of a mess.

The website Dark Matter News shared what the woman had found. She apparently claimed that the house was “filthy, cluttered and strange to say the least.” Weirdest of all was that the living room had only one item of furniture. It was a single desk – standing on its own.

So, given the woman alleged the house was a “treasure trove” of garbage, you may not be surprised to learn that she came across the box. But then it got weird. A short while after her discovery, Mysterious Universe claims that a couple of “men in black” came to stare through the window at her. Unsurprisingly, the lady scrammed, but when she returned, they’d disappeared.

Given the visit from the mysterious men, the woman was not keen on hanging on to the box. She binned it, but some buddies fished the container out of the trash without her knowing. A few years passed, and then when visiting a friend she saw one of the pictures from the box. When the friend discovered that the receptacle had been hers, he handed it back.

Well, the woman wasn’t as scared of the box anymore, so she and her husband started to investigate. The lady enlisted religious folks and students of engineering to give their opinions, and they were stunned by the contents. Apparently, the written elements were incomprehensible due to being so dense and weirdly phrased.

The box remained mysterious to the woman, but she definitely wanted to keep it. That led her to stuff it into hiding in her basement when she moved to North Carolina. Then, the lady changed home again but forgot all about the box. And when it came to mind again, she found out that it had gone into the garbage.

Maybe the woman could still have found the box – but for one person. And that guy was Dan Wickham’s friend! Yes, we’ve reached the point where he enters the story. He discovered the box in the trash outside of the woman’s old house and took it. Then it made its way to Wickham and fame on the internet.

Though what’s on the papers in the box? Well, some sheets contain dense, cramped text. The writing is neat and careful, but it’s littered with spelling mistakes. The content is difficult to parse, with glimpses of such strange subjects as flying saucers, weird cloud formations and the city of St. Petersburg in Florida.

Another sheet, meanwhile, features the periodic table. Although the layout is slightly unconventional, it’s accurate and extends up to uranium – the 92nd element and last of those that occur naturally. It’s written by hand, although the style is somewhat different from the pages of text. Perhaps the box’s owner got fancy?

There are also a bunch of maps, and some of them have been hand drawn. They’re attractive drawings, too – covering much of the world. Although they’re on the whole accurate, one misses most of the state of Victoria in Australia. Strangely, each of them has a pinhole that could have allowed them to be stacked together – perhaps for referencing.

One map that the box owner did not draw himself is a colored projection of the Earth. And inscribed on it are the air routes of the day. We can’t be certain which day that was, though it’s certainly fairly old. The map refers to such places as the Soviet Union and French West Africa – both long gone today.

Elsewhere, one drawing is an amazingly detailed depiction of a piece of railroad engineering. This is one of the signed pieces, with the name “Daniel Christiansen” clearly visible and the date of April 15, 1939. The signature and date are rendered in a neat cursive style – different from the title of the piece.

When we look at a larger drawing from the box, it becomes clear that Christiansen had a patent in mind. The bigger picture shows many views of roller bearings. And alongside them is a technical description and indication of what Christiansen believed could be claimed in a patent. The author also shows a fine eye and careful sketching skills.

But if all there was to see in Christiansen’s box was patent drawings, there’d be no story, right? After all, the bearings might be new, but they’re not “crazy.” Though this isn’t the only thing that’s in there. The weirdness is cranked up with a little sketch of a cow on what seems to be a folded napkin. Well, a cow’s not all that strange, right? No, but this one is wearing a helmet!

Mechanized animals must have been an interest of Christiansen’s because there are more than one drawing of something definitely weird. It’s a puma that’s a train. Yes, you didn’t misread that! It’s a big cat with what seems like they might be wings, and it’s sitting on rolling stock. Is this something to do with his patented roller bearings?

That’s nothing, though. One of the drawings in the box is of an alien encounter! How can we know this? Well, Christiansen seems to have written a description of a forthcoming UFO visit to St. Petersburg. And he supplies the visuals of the saucer and spatial conditions that it caused or will cause. Mind you, it’s not entirely clear whether Christiansen is describing a vision or something that has happened.

There are more details on another sheet which shows the flying saucer in all its glory. The writing is much less neat than on other sheets, and it is a muddle of sense and nonsense. But it’s clear this is a UFO, which perhaps carries the weird creatures Christiansen also draws.

Christiansen seems to have drawn several close-ups of these alien beings. And they are indeed like nothing on Earth. The strange four-headed creatures are a mixture between humanoid and bird. The central head is hooded – almost human – but the other three are animal. Two could be pumas and the third some sort of griffin, which may also be the source of the being’s wings.

The craziness peaks in an astonishing drawing – depicting all sorts of creatures, gearing and machinery. Is this the inside of the flying saucer? There’s some text, but it’s very hard to read. Also, the beings and mechanics in the picture are unrecognizable, ornate and strange. The aliens have several heads and are feathered, while the machinery is intricate and inexplicable.

For his part, Wickham provided close-ups detailing the big drawing of the alien machinery. In one is a set of wheels within wheels with spokes or struts radiating through them. The outer rim of the wheels is studded with what could be light fittings. Ominous faces seem also to be part of the machinery’s decoration. 

More wheels within wheels feature in a further close-up. And in this one we get a really good look at one of the savage alien creatures. We can see that it’s wearing shoes that seem to be bifurcated – suggesting hooves similar to a goat or pig’s. With its intricate feathering and scowling features, it resembles a Maya god.

A further close-up reveals that Christiansen did originate this picture. He gives his name in handwriting that is nothing like the same as the neat and tidy stuff he’d done years earlier. The man also gives his aliases; one is Nesna It Sirhc, which the careful reader will note is his surname backwards. From this small patch of writing, we learn that this drawing is of the same happening in Tampa Bay.

Sure, the box’s contents are weird, yet the woman who previously owned it claimed to have stranger stuff still. She said that Christiansen had written a scheme for building a time machine and that what may have been such a device had actually been discovered in his house. But that’s not all: the woman then alleged that it had been put to use!

The lady told Dark Matter News that the notes that she had found “describe in detail how to build this machine, how to time travel, how to have out of body experiences, what diet to eat to prepare yourself to travel, you name it.” We can’t be sure whether this is all true, though, because no evidence was provided.

In fact, the woman claimed that what was in the box was “not even one tenth of a percent of what was in the house.” The residence was apparently full of books about such off-the-wall subjects as out-of-body experiences. It was also swimming in writing, charts, blueprints, drawings and other papers.

If what the woman said was true, Christiansen would have spent many hours creating these materials. But why? Well, there have been plenty of theories. Perhaps Christiansen really did see aliens, and maybe they even influenced his thoughts – directing the creations in the box. Perhaps he went into an unknown dimension. Or maybe it was just art?

Well, possibly Christiansen wasn’t thinking straight, and that’s why in the end he just tossed his hard work away. Some have suggested, though, that the Christiansen story is all just a hoax. There’s even a subreddit dedicated to getting to the bottom of the enigma, where amateur sleuths spend time trying to find out the truth.

And yes, there are some conclusions on offer, although whether they’re actually the truth is questionable. For instance, one of the Reddit users on the case claims to have discovered Daniel Christiansen. The latter is apparently no longer living, but he did leave children. Also, the individual who claims to have discovered this believes that the kids should be given all his drawings.

Even if there is a man by that name, though, that doesn’t suggest by itself that Christiansen did create the contents of the box. Suspicion has fallen on Dan Wickham himself. After all, he suspiciously seems to have become a member of the Imgur community solely to post the pictures of the box materials.

Other Reddit users pointed to some details that suggested a hoax. One wrote, “The font on the first pages is modern, and does not correspond with the rest of the documents. Given the new font on old or weathered to appear old paper, I’d assume this is a hoax or promotional item. Never enlist a graphic artist to create a ‘forged’ document.”

One of Christiansen’s aliases was apparently “Nesa It Sirhc.” And, interestingly, it turns out that there’s a geocacher who uses that very same handle. They reside in North Carolina, too. So, is that the final answer to the question of who created the box’s contents?

It seems not, because another Reddit user had a tale to tell about Christiansen. The individual claimed to be penning a piece for a Danish newspaper and had phoned Christiansen’s nephew Elmer Arbov. Well, it turns out that his uncle came to visit him in Denmark, so he got to know him quite well. Christiansen was really into the revelations of the Biblical prophet Ezekiel, and Arbov felt that that may have been the inspiration for his work.

That’s because Christiansen had his own version of Christianity – based on Ezekiel. Apparently, the man had written to Arbov’s mom and dad all about what he believed. It was all that he lived to do, or so Arbov claimed. But sadly, his letters have not survived. Arbov assured the Reddit user that Christiansen was totally sane. The stuff in the box, though, has to be considered at least a bit eccentric.