'Pretty awesome': Illinois man finds decadesold Christmas gift inside wall of childhood home
Jan 03, 2025
LOMBARD, Ill. (WGN) — Waiting for holiday gifts can feel agonizing, but for one Illinois man, the wait took about 46 years longer than usual.
Tim King, a Lombard resident and the owner of TKING Construction Services, was performing a small remodel on the bathroom of his parents' home when he found a hidden treasure tucked away behind the drywall -- a decades-old Christmas gift.
"Before we closed up the drywall on the wall, I was like, 'I should probably look and see that there is nothing back there,' and sure enough, there was a present," King said.
The gift was wrapped in festive Disney-themed paper that had yellowed a bit from its days hidden away, but the surprises did not stop there. Upon closer inspection, Tim realized that the gift had his name on it.
"So when I pulled that out, it was super old wrapping paper, and then I was like, 'Oh crap, that has my name on it,'" King said.
King thinks the gift may have fallen into the wall since his parents once used the attic to hide gifts ahead of the holidays.
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The home, located in Lombard, has been in King's family for three generations. It was originally built by King's great-grandparents as a summer getaway from Chicago. King said it was passed to his grandparents, who built an addition, and his parents later bought it and built an addition, too.
"It must have fallen down, like, between the walls, because, you know, there are a couple of additions on this house," King said.
Following the discovery, King waited for his mother so she could finally get to watch him open the gift, though said she did not remember buying it.
When he finally did open it, King discovered a set of Matchbox Thunder Jets, which he said would have been a great gift.
"I would have been 6, so that is pretty awesome," he said.
King believes the toy set was purchased during the Christmas season of 1978.
King documented the discovery and the unwrapping of the gift on his company's Instagram page TKING Construction Services (@tking_cs).