🍽 Foam-Filled Dishwashers and Shrimp in the? A Seller's Dirty Revenge

🕵️‍♂️The Inspection Insider

The Inside Scoop for Buyers, Sellers, and Realtors

This Week's Inspector Spotlight: Interesting Hook

When the House Doesn't Want to Be Sold

The inspection started like any other.
The house looked great—1970s split-level on a quiet street, priced to move, and already drawing multiple offers. My clients were first-time buyers, excited and a little nervous.

We walked up to the front door and the realtor fumbled with the key. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing.

Eventually, I took a look—and realized the problem.
The key wouldn’t even slide into the lock.

It had been glued shut.

So we circled around to the back, and sure enough, the patio door had been left unlocked. Convenient? Yes. Suspicious? Also yes.

The Dishwasher Surprise

Inside, everything looked normal at first glance. Clean floors, staged furniture, that faint scent of fresh paint.

But there was a weird fishy smell in the air—very faint, mostly near the windows. We figured maybe something had been left in the trash too long.

I started my usual routine and headed to the kitchen. One of the first things I do is run the dishwasher (empty—no soap), just to make sure it cycles properly.

I turned it on and moved on to check the attic. But when I pushed up on the hatch cover it wouldn’t budge, I hit another roadblock—it had been nailed shut. Not screwed. Nailed.

That’s when I heard it.

“Hey! Uh… something’s wrong in the kitchen!”

Bubbles Everywhere

I came back down to find foam flooding out of the dishwasher, pouring through the door seal and onto the floor like a slow-motion avalanche.

Turns out someone had filled the soap compartment with dish soap—the kind you use in the sink, not the dishwasher.

The result? A foamy disaster.

Luckily, the realtor had seen this before. She grabbed a bottle of cooking oil from the kitchen and poured a little into the bottom of the machine. Within seconds, the bubbles began to break down. Crisis averted—sort of.

While the buyers and realtor were busy mopping up the mess, I continued the inspection.

It Kept Getting Weirder

The fishy smell was still lingering, but only near the windows in each room.
No odor from the vents, nothing in the kitchen garbage. Just a suspicious stench around every curtain.

Downstairs, I checked the mechanical room. The furnace wasn’t the problem, but the furnace filter was missing—and in its place? A folded pizza box jammed into the slot.

I also noticed something else: the sump pump was unplugged, and water was starting to bubble up through the lid. I plugged it back in, and the pit began to drain almost immediately. Another "oops"? I wasn’t so sure anymore.

The Buyers Had Seen Enough

I returned upstairs and gave the buyers and their agent the update:

• Glued front door

• Nailed attic

• Dishwasher sabotage

• Pizza box in the furnace

• Sump pump unplugged

• Strange smells

They just looked at each other.

“This feels like sabotage,” the buyer said.

He was right.

They decided to walk away from the deal on the spot. “Who knows what else is waiting for us in this place?”

The Shrimp in the Rods

Later, we found out what the smell was.
The seller—who was going through a nasty divorce—had stuffed raw shrimp into the curtain rods before the inspection.

It wasn’t just petty. It was strategic.

He didn’t want the house to sell. He wanted the sale to fall apart so he could buy it later for less.

🪓 Sabotage confirmed.

Lesson Learned

You can uncover a lot during an inspection—but sometimes it’s what you can’t see (or what someone’s hiding) that tells the real story.

In messy situations like divorce sales, emotions run hot and tactics get sneaky. If the house starts throwing red flags, don’t ignore them.

Because if it smells like sabotage… it probably is.

How to get rid of the bubbles 👇🏼

🛠️ Pro Tip of the Week

If you walk into a house and the lock’s glued, the attic’s nailed shut, and the dishwasher looks like a bubble bath—walk away. Homes are complicated enough without sabotage baked in.

Don’t Just Read the Nightmares—Avoid Them

You’ve seen the damage a glued lock, shrimp-stuffed curtain rod, or pizza box furnace filter can do to a deal.

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🔎 Coming Next Week…

What’s Holding Up This Cabin Will Shock You
An older couple bought their dream lake cabin to enjoy with their grandkids—no inspection, just good feelings. But when the floor started shifting, they called me. What I found underneath? Let’s just say it belonged in a garage, not under a house.

Ron Henderson, CMI
Certified Master Inspector

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