Woman almost bought a pair of Goodwill shorts. She wasn’t prepared for what she found in the crotch section: ‘the clam chowder’

A TikTok user who posts as Tarzee (@tarahartis) said she was shopping in what appeared to be a Goodwill thrift store when she picked up a pair of bright blue athletic shorts and turned them inside out. In video, she said shoppers should always check clothes at Goodwill before buying them.

Tarzee held up the shorts, which she showed had a ruched elastic waistband and a lightweight fabric. She then rotated them so the inner lining faced the camera. She said, “Y’all, this is freaking nasty. Look at the crotch in this pair of shorts.”

The video showed a large, yellowish-white crusty stain on the inner crotch lining. Tarzee said she wished she could walk the shorts over to the trash can. She added, “Anyway, check them before you buy them, y’all.” The video had gained 5.5 million views and 10,400 comments.

The stained shorts were gone when she returned to the same Goodwill

In a follow-up TikTok video stitched to the first clip and captioned as an update on the “Gross Goodwill Find,” Tarzee said she went back to that same store after work. She said she walked the shorts aisles to see if the pair was still there. She stated they were not.

She said an employee may have found them, possibly after seeing the first video, and thrown them away. She also said somebody might now be the new owner of those shorts. She added, “I wish we knew the real answer. It’s killing me.” She said they still do not know what happened to the pair.

According to an article from Closo, Goodwill does not wash donated clothes. The site said a single urban location can receive about 2,000 items a day and that washing that volume is not how stores handle donations. The article described a visual check for major stains, wetness, or mold, plus a sniff test for strong odor, then pricing and placement on the floor.

Closo said the familiar thrift-store smell is usually a mix of detergents, fabric softeners, and perfumes from many homes in a tight space, not a store disinfectant. The site said shoppers and resellers are left to clean items themselves if they want them sanitized.

Viewers reacted to Tarzee’s video in the comments. One person wrote, “I’ll be back I have to go throw up.” Tarzee replied, “I’ll hold your hair.” Another commenter wrote, “You can sell them for 5 times what you pay for them on the internet. GO MAKE THAT MONEY.” Another commenter wrote, “Was not prepared for the clam chowder.”

One viewer said they had a similar find at a different chain: “I found a used tampon in a jacket last week at Ross.” Such disturbing finds aren’t limited to thrift stores, like when a woman bought Abercrombie & Fitch pants and found something soaking wet in the pockets.

Someone else wrote, “Now FRIEND!!!! You had them real close to the camera. So close to WE could smell them. Just have us ALL looking like this.” Another commenter said a neighbor who had managed a Goodwill told them donors often do not wash clothes before dropping them off, that stores have dealt with bedbugs, and that “some people poop and donate the clothes.”

One more viewer asked, “WHY DID YOU GET SO CLOSE WITH THE CAMERA.” Thrift store shoppers have been startled by unexpected finds before, like a New York woman who reached into her new Old Navy shorts.