Furniture costs can mount up quickly, so whether you're furnishing your first property or simply lack the budget for brand-new pieces, purchasing second-hand offers an excellent money-saving alternative.

While charity shops stock furniture, platforms such as Facebook Marketplace or local community groups also connect you with nearby sellers offloading unwanted items. Still, caution is essential when acquiring pre-owned goods from unknown online sellers, as you cannot verify an item's history or previous usage.

Or, as one couple on social media recently discovered, what former owners might have inadvertently left behind.

Samantha Hardin and her husband recently purchased a sofa from her husband's colleague, who had decided to dispose of the practically new piece because he disliked how it appeared in his flat.

After positioning the furniture in their lounge, Samantha observed her dogs were "incredibly interested" in the sofa, initially attributing this to residual scent on the upholstery from the previous owner's cat - until she began detecting an unusual noise emanating from within.

Samantha described the sound as resembling a bell, though extremely faint and difficult to hear clearly. Moreover, whenever she mentioned the noise to her husband, it would cease.

She said: "I said something to my husband, but it was SO faint, and he kept missing it any time I said anything. It was like every time I pointed it out, the [sound] got quiet again."

After enduring over an hour of intermittent noise, Samantha decided it was time to investigate. Upon lifting part of the sofa, she heard a thump and discovered the source of the disturbance - the previous owner's cat had become trapped in her furniture.

The sound she'd been hearing was the bell on the cat's collar, and upon spotting the feline, named Cheeto, nestled within the base of the sofa, she and her husband devoted nearly two hours to coaxing her out safely.

She revealed to Newsweek: "We probably spent every bit of another hour or two trying to get her out by 'pssting' at her and trying to reach her enough to pet her so she'd be comfortable. Then we started trying dog treats and dog food because that was all I had."

Despite their efforts to reposition the sofa to free Cheeto, the frightened cat remained immobile. Ultimately, Samantha and her husband were forced to cut a hole in the panel beneath the sofa to reach in and retrieve her.

They promptly contacted the cat's owner, but due to the late hour, they couldn't reunite Cheeto with her dad until the following morning. The cat is now safely back with her owner, who is thrilled his pet is unharmed.

Samantha recounted the incident on TikTok, where numerous commenters shared that their own cats had engaged in similar antics, such as hiding in furniture or sneaking into strangers' cars.

The woman now hopes her video will encourage pet owners to exercise greater caution, as she stated: "Thanks to my video, I now know this is apparently really, really common! Let cat owners know to triple-check their furniture before they sell or get rid of anything!".