Unreal Estate: Scorpions Loosed on Stubborn Homeowners

Each week, AOL Real Estate probes the corners of the Web to bring you offbeat dispatches from the world of real estate. This week brought word of people finding some of the worst things imaginable in their homes, including an invading army of scorpions and a live grenade.

Scorpions top this week's list of unpleasant household surprises, with Business Insider reporting that hundreds of the menacing arachnids were let loose into the homes of families in China who were resisting the demolition of their housing development. The ruthless measure sheds light on the scarcity of protections for private property owners in China, wrote the columnist who originally reported the incident.

Then again, maybe we jumped the gun by ranking scorpions first: Hand grenades give deadly insects a run for their money, don't they? An agent in Lewiston, Idaho, encountered the staging debacle of his life when he found a hand grenade in a home that he was showing, reports Krem.com. Which leads us to ask: What is the bigger buzzkill for a house tour: a dead-body stain or a live explosive?

The grenade incident probably didn't help the home's listing agent, but at least he didn't plant it himself -- as a Florida Realtor is accused of doing with an illegal drug. Police inspecting a mysterious package shipped to a realty title company found 260 grams of crystal methamphetamine worth $30,000 inside, according to the dailycommercial.com. Authorities traced the package to the president-elect of the Realtor's Association of Lake and Sumter Counties, leading to his arrest and a charge of trafficking drugs through the mail.

The last story we have for you may be a little less dark, but it still has managed to generate its fair share of controversy. Enterprising Texan Kenneth Robinson -- either a hero or a squatter, depending on your point of view -- has taken possession of a foreclosed $300,000 house for a mere $16. He's betting that neither the original owner nor the bank is willing to spend the money to evict him. If he's right -- and if the neighbors don't succeed in their efforts to get him out -- he could win title to the house after three years.

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