The Kircher Society blog has a neat article about a strange collection of the Stasi, the East German secret police:
One of the more bizarre activities the Stasi was found to have engaged in was the collection of Geruchsproben — smell samples — for the benefit of the East German smell hounds. The odors, collected during interrogations using a perforated metal “smell sample chair” or by breaking into people’s homes and stealing their dirty underwear, were stored in small glass jars.
http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/2007/04/05/smell-jars-of-the-stasi/