Jacksonville, Florida- Daniel "Dino" Odum, part-time Ferris Wheel operator, flea market vendor and former Realtor® loves to hunt for dumpster treasure. This past Friday was no exception.

While walking past what appeared to be a stuffed-to-capacity dumpster at the Bay Meadows Washington Mutual building, Odum caught the glint of something "shiny" out of the corner of his eye and decided to investigate.

As Odum approached the dumpster and slipped on his leather elbow protectors, in preparation for a quick dive, he spotted what appeared to be a "gently used" tackle box.  A "real find" in flea market circles.  But as Odum got closer and flipped back the rubber lid, he was shocked by what he found inside.

Familiar with real estate documents from his year in the business (2005), Odum found what appeared to be hundreds of thousands of fax cover sheets from Realtors®, third party authorization forms, hardship letters, bank statements, short sale addendums, purchase offers, listing agreements, family photos, losing lotto tickets and copies of Psychic Hot Line bills.

Odum immediately contacted authorities and tipped off Eyewitness News to the situation, with a request that he be allowed to keep the tackle box if it wasn't going to be used as evidence.

When authorities arrived at the scene, they found WaMu employees flinging files out of a second story window directly into the overflowing dumpster.  Loud music, hysterical laughter, and 'high-five' hand slapping could be heard from the parking lot.

According to investigators, the files Odum discovered are the "lost" short sale files Realtors® have been submitting to WaMu since their takeover by Chase in late 2008.  Some of the files have been submitted repeatedly, often as many as 10 different times to different fax numbers and/or locations.

The director of WaMu's loss mitigation department was unavailable for comment, but sources claim he is a former Active Rain member who was permanently banned for comment spam and continual violation of AR's guidelines.

Disclaimer: This "News Item" was written by Ralph the real estate dog.  It is a work of (comic relief) fiction. Only the photo is real. Any resemblance between the characters, persons or Realtors® is purely coincidental.  Photo GNU Free Documentation License, through Wikimedia.