Entertainment
TikTok is convinced a buried rug in a woman's yard contains a body
TikTok loves a good true crime mystery. It’s not uncommon for folks to go viral over somewhat creepy stories where viewers can try to guess what happened.
The latest viral series involves a buried rug, cadaver dogs, and lots of theories from TikTok. In short, folks online were enthralled by the story of a woman who found a rug buried in her backyard. They wondered if she perhaps had found a body or if there was some much more innocent explanation.
Friday afternoon, we finally got an answer: there was no body. But there remains a lot to explain about how this situation went so viral.
We’ve got the full breakdown.
What happened with the buried rug?
It all started with then-relatively obscure TikTokker Katie Santry, a woman in Columbus, Ohio, posting a TikTok four days ago. In the video, Santry wondered if her house was haunted, citing her laptop getting shattered and her workspace disturbed overnight, seemingly without explanation.
Toward the end of the video, Santry mentioned that she and her boyfriend also recently discovered a rug buried in their backyard while digging to install a fence. That TikTok got more than 4 million views, which led to a series of followups. The next video, for instance, racked up 10 million views as it showed the actual rug in the ground.
As these things are wont to do, each forthcoming installment added bits of info and racked up tons of views. For instance, a Bloodgood tree was planted over where they found the rug, which, of course, people found creepy. After the comment section insisted, Santry tried to dig some more, but the rug was too big and too long for her to dig out. She was going to leave it as it was, but after a while the comment section then convinced her to call the police.
What happened with the cops and cadaver dogs?
The police came out and apparently told Santry it did seem weird, but there wasn’t much to do. Santry kept digging, both literally and figuratively. She enlisted friends to help dig in the backyard and got in touch with family members of the previous owners of the home.
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But eventually the professionals got involved again. Santry said that the local homicide department got in touch and sent more officers to the property, including cadaver dogs. Santry said both dogs sat by the hole in the ground, indicating they had found something.
That would seemingly indicated something strange was going on in the backyard, which, of course, all of TikTok found disconcerting. Meanwhile, Santry’s account ballooned to 1.6 million followers as tons of people anxiously followed along.
What has Santry said about it all?
The newly famous Ohio woman did an interview with People about the situation that published on Thursday.
“The Internet is about 50/50 on whether it’s a dead body or an animal, and maybe 10% think this was just a junkyard,” she said. “However, we’ve dug a lot of posts and fenced in most of our yard at this point, and I can say we haven’t come across any other rugs. So, the Internet thinks it’s either a junkyard, a dead body, or a dead dog.”
Though Santry said she didn’t think it was a body.
“I truly don’t think there’s a dead body down there,” Santry told People. “The curiosity about why that rug is there definitely haunts me. But my biggest concern is my computer because, at the end of the day, it shattered for no apparent reason. That leaves me with the most question marks. I actually have a psychic who reached out to me and wants to do a reading.”
So, what’s in the rug?
Developments in the strange situation continued to roll in through Santry’s TikTok account. Friday morning she posted videos saying that a bunch of officers had come over to her house and were prepared to dig.
Around 11 a.m. ET she posted a video saying the digging had begun. Clearly a bit shaken, Santry seemed to be ready for the whole ordeal to conclude.
“We don’t know anything yet,” she said. “My goal is that we can all laugh about it tomorrow. We’re all going to say, ‘Huh, this was a funny, silly-goose waste of time.”
And by about 2 p.m. ET, Santry revealed on TikTok that the cops had found only the rug, some rubber, and nothing else of consequence. It’s not clear why the dogs got a hit in the yard, but it doesn’t seem to be for any nefarious reason. She still wondered what happened to her laptop, but there was definitely a sense of relief.
“There’s no body. There’s no body,” she said. “Honestly, let’s praise the lord there’s no body. I can stay in my house.”
Entertainment
Light Flip is a minimalistic, cheap flip phone that wont distract you
Remember Light, the New York-based company that builds super-simple, distraction-free, cheap smartphones?
It’s back with a new device; its first-ever flip phone called the Light Flip.
Once again, this is a cheap phone designed to free you from endless scrolling and social media addiction, while still offering the basic tools you need for everyday life. To do this, the company has built an Android-based, minimalistic operating system called LightOS that’s mostly textual and displays everything in just two colors. You do get access to music, messages, alarms, and other basic apps, but you don’t get to scroll the flashy new TIkTok video; that’s what your other phone is for.
The Light Flip is available in six colors: Black, Navy, Red, Pink, Yellow, and Light Gray.
Credit: Light Phone
The Light Flip doesn’t stray far from the formula, but approaches it with the body of a flip phone. In many ways, it’s far more simple than the company’s previous phone, the Light Phone III, which has an OLED touchscreen. The Light Flip is basically your flip phone of old, with a plastic body, a numeric, T9 keypad, some function buttons, and a 2.8-inch, non-touch display.
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Numeric keypad? That’s right, but at least it supports T9 predictive input.
Credit: Light Phone
Inside, it’s powered by a MediaTek MT8873 chip, 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and has a 50-megapixel camera and a (replaceable) 1,800mAh battery. Other amenities include a headphone jack (nice!), a USB-C port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G connectivity.
The camera on the back has a 50-megapixel sensor but takes 12-megapixel images.
Credit: Light Phone
The numeric keypad might be a tough sell to folks that are used to touchscreens or at least QWERTY keyboards. Fortunately, the Light Flip does support voice-to-text and audio messaging, too.
The phone is available in six colors: Black, Navy, Red, Pink, Yellow, and Light Gray.
The Light Flip retails for $299 or $39 per month with the Light Service plan. It starts shipping in April 2027.
Entertainment
The Ecovacs Goat 01000 RTK robot lawn mower is on sale for under $700 at Amazon
SAVE $301: The Ecovacs Goat 01000 RTK robot lawn mower is on sale for $698.99 at Amazon, down from the standard price of $999.99. That’s a 30% discount.
$698.99
at Amazon
$999.99
Save $301
Not many people consider the chore of mowing the lawn to be enjoyable. It’s a task we often hand off to the neighborhood kids or a professional landscaping crew. But if you’d rather take matters into your own hands, we have a great solution these days. Plus, an affordable model is on sale.
As of July 21, the Ecovacs Goat 01000 RTK robot lawn mower is on sale for $698.99 at Amazon, marked down from the list price of $999.99. That winds up being a savings of $301 from a 30% discount.
By now you’ve probably seen a robot lawn mower rolling around someone’s yard, but it’s still an abnormal sight. Just like the rollout of robot vacuums, we’ll slowly start to see more and more robots take over mowing the lawn. As someone with allergies, I’m totally cool with never touching a lawn mower ever again.
The Ecovacs Goat 01000 is designed to maintain lawns that span up to 0.25 acres in size. You don’t need to worry about a wire perimeter because it maps your yard and stays on course thanks to LiDAR RTK navigation that even works in the shade or under trees. It can even avoid obstacles when mowing in dark conditions.
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The small mower body that measures 2.3 feet means it can mow in tight areas like between raised vegetable beds or small walkways. Plus, it has an IPX6 waterproof design. You get to decide on your ideal cutting length between 1.2 and 3.2 inches.
Today’s Amazon deal on the Ecovacs Goat 01000 applies to the robot mower with a care kit which includes 36 blades and an RTK AC adapter. Since the mower and the care kit are on sale for under $700, today is a great day to wave goodbye to the heavy and loud push mower and make the upgrade. Spend the rest of summer perfecting homemade slushies instead of doing yardwork.
Entertainment
Amazon has my favorite Bissell carpet cleaner marked down by 25% right now
SAVE 25%: As of July 21, you can get the Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix carpet cleaner (38572) for $119.99, down from $159.99, at Amazon.
$119.99
at Amazon
$159.99
Save $40.00
I used to have a Bissell Little Green machine, and it worked right up until I poured liquid into the wrong compartment. But before my little mishap, this little thing was a lifesaver (I seldom use that word, but in this case, it’s true). With two beagles running around my apartment, having a carpet cleaner is a necessity.
And right now, you can get your own Bissell Little Green Max Pet SmartMix carpet cleaner for $119.99, down from $159.99. That’s a 25% discount or $40 in savings.
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It comes with a specialized Pet Hair Removal Tool designed to grab embedded fur and debris from your upholstery, and once you’re done scrubbing, the Self-Cleaning Tough Stain Tool rinses out the leftover dirt and residue from the hose with the touch of a button (my machine didn’t have that feature).
Another major upgrade on this specific model is the SmartMix Technology, which automatically mixes the water and cleaning formula together for you so you don’t have to measure anything. Just be sure you pour it into the correct tank!
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