Homeowners discover suspected Nazi bunker underground with creepy message scrawled on walls: ‘Beware, the enemy is listening'
'It's not something you find every day!' Shaun Tullier, 35, told South West News Service while recalling the 'completely wild' discovery.
The subterranean refuge was reportedly located 26 feet underground and was outfitted with bottles, water and even an escape hatch like a Bond villain's lair.
He and his wife Caroline, 32, had moved into the domicile in Guernsey in 2021, unaware of the wartime shelter that lay beneath their feet.
Having been born in Guernsey, Shaun had been familiar with the history of the Channel Islands, which were occupied by German forces from 1940 until their liberation in May 1945, the BBC reported. They had reportedly turned these idyllic isles into an 'impregnable fortress' in line with Adolf Hitler's orders.
However, while the Brit knew that the site had been used as an enemy gun emplacement, he didn't realize it also housed a concealed bunker until he got tipped off by a woman who used to live in the house.
She had reportedly contacted Shaun, who works as a carpenter, while he was hawking some chopped boards on Facebook Marketplace.
'She said, 'Oh did you find the rooms below your house?'' Shaun recounted.'I then replied, 'Oh, so there are rooms!', to which she said, 'Yes, we used to play in there when we were kids, my dad filled it in — I know they're at the front of the house.''
That's when he made the decision to uproot the driveway to try and unearth this chamber of secrets.
Shaun and his friend ended up using an excavator to remove 100 tons of earth, uncovering the entrance to the underground lair.
'We kept digging down for a while and then finally, the ground just gave way and this doorway appeared,' he said, per the BBC.
The space reportedly measured 17ft by 10ft and 17ft by 20ft, and featured a hallway that was 30ft by 4 feet wide.
It also housed the remnants of the occupants who sheltered there, including old bottles, water, tins a tiled floor, and an emergency exit.
Perhaps most notable was the chilling German phrase 'achtung feind hort mit,' which translates to 'beware, the enemy is listening.'
'You can't really put it into words,' said Tullier, who knew about the bunkers but didn't expect to find one under his home.
'I always knew about bunkers, but when Guernsey people came back to Guernsey after the war, they wanted to fill all the bunkers up,' he said. 'A lot of people still have bunkers here, but they are down the road and in gardens — not underneath the house!'
The homeowner was reportedly so enamored with the discovery that he took pains to preserve the historical elements. They reportedly filled the bunker with 80s tons of concrete to encase the walls and steps, and are currently in the process of converting the space into a games room with a snooker table and a gym.
The pair hopes to install the floor and finish painting the space by November.
They even plan to preserve the eerie message. 'We are definitely keeping the writing — and might get someone that can calligraphy it back on, otherwise it gets lost,' said Shaun. 'Even the air getting to it has faded it a bit.'
Ultimately, the Brit believes the restoration is worth it, declaring, 'It's not just rooms for us, it's a part of history.'
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