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By Alyce Collins
Senior Reporter
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It's not uncommon to make unexpected discoveries after moving into a new place, but one couple was horrified by the shocking feature that came with their new home.
In a now viral Reddit post, user /u/kylemacabre said the home he had recently bought with his wife featured a "bomb shelter in the backyard." He joked that the shelter looked like it was straight out of a horror movie, and that he didn't want to think about what might be down there.
The 34-year-old Redditor, who lives in New Mexico, told Newsweek that he was "aware of the shelter" when he placed an offer on the property, but he didn't go inside until after they moved in on May 1. They loved everything about the house apart from the one garden feature, and they didn't want it to stand in the way of their dream home.
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He said: "My wife was hired at a nearby university, so I came out ahead of time to meet a real estate agent and view some homes. The house was in great shape. It was the best I had seen that whole weekend, but there was just one catch: It had a creepy bomb shelter.
"The first thing I thought was that movie Barbarian, or that scene in Silence of the Lambs where Jodie Foster is in Buffalo Bill's basement, and you see the rotting corpse in the bathtub. I didn't go down that day, as you can imagine."
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According to paperwork and a planning permit, the shelter was built in the 1980s, and it includes a large underground room, a shower and a toilet.
Eventually, /u/kylemacabre plucked up enough courage to head down the stairs and see what was hidden inside. He said he felt "very nervous" as he made his way down the staircase, dreading the sights that might greet him.
"All in all, my biggest concern was the state it might have been in," he said. "I was pretty convinced it was going to be super dank and gross down there. I mentally prepared for the worst—maybe a few inches of murky water on the floor or a dirty, old mattress. Luckily, it was only sort of creepy, and there weren't any poisonous bugs or snakes down there."
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Now that he knows the shelter isn't a horror movie in the making, the Redditor plans to turn it into a music room. He intends to install a drum kit and amplifiers to make use of the soundproof area.
"I definitely want to make it feel less like a subterranean concrete box. I kind of made up my mind the moment I saw the space, as I have always dreamt of having a music room," he said.
After making the discovery and looking inside the shelter, /u/kylemacabre posted several pictures of it on Reddit in July. The post, which has horrified many social media users, has received more than 31,000 upvotes and 3,500 comments in a matter of days.
The Redditor told Newsweek he's taking the mixed online reaction "with a grain of salt."
He added: "I'm glad I posted about it as some Redditors pointed out the poisonous gas hazards I hadn't considered, and others pointed out structural concerns. It prompted me to contact an inspector and have the walls and ceiling examined."
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Many commenters insisted that the garden feature was a tornado shelter, while others discussed what they would do with the space.
"It has all the potential to be an awesome man cave/ gaming den/ secret room," one user wrote.
"Think maybe a nice beer or wine cellar would work," another added. "Is it nice and cool down there?"
A commenter said, "Dude I'd make that into a chill spot or even a guest room or something."
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