2 breakers in panel feed 1 wire

I haven’t seen this before and am pretty sure it’s just wrong. 2 wires from separate 15 amp breakers connect to a single wire with 1 neutral that terminates at the buss bar. Both breakers pull from the same side of the panel. Any ideas on what this is an attempt to do? There’s enough to justify calling for an electrician (wires stripped back almost 2 inches, missing deadfront fasteners, oversized AC breaker, signs of a previous elec arc) but would like to know if anyone can enlighten me a little.

If the two single pole 15 amp circuit breakers are on the same “phase” (which they must be if they’re spliced together) then you end up with a single 30 amp circuit.

The hot legs in a panel are arranged ABABA, not left right .

Are you describing a red and a black from one cable sharing a neutral?

Are you aware that air conditioners have a different set of rules for conductor sizing?

I looked at the photo it again it appears to be a 3 wire NM cable with just one conductor (the red one) spliced. The black, white and EGC are not spliced. More photos would confirm this.

Why would they do that?

The red conductor was too short or originally cut off right where it entered the panel?

Or someone added a device that they needed on a separate breaker and this wire was already there. Main thing to look out for is a shared neutral. IMO

Robert I think you may be correct. The panel had a bunch of stored items under it and I wasn’t really able to get a closer look but I was pretty sure at the time 3 wires were spliced together. Now, I’m second guessing that. The buyers (party of 3) and agent were both there and I was definitely being distracted. Still enough wrong to have referred to an electrician but I think I dropped the ball on this one.

I agree, if this were added to create a MWBC then that may be an issue if done incorrectly.