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A cache recovery posse-hunt story

Tom_in_CA

Elite Member
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Dec 23, 2013
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20,637
Was talking to Kob recently about posse-hunts, and rewards/tips, etc... And it reminded me of this posse-hunt I did many years ago. Fun little story :

There was a guy in Carmel Valley California who was a fan of collecting gold coins . Like for investment. The type guy who thinks gold is the best hedge against inflation. And loves to speculate in the precious metals. So over the years, he had accumulated over 100 gold coins. Eg.: Maple Leafs, Krugerrands, ingots, etc....

But him and his wife started to drift apart. Not getting along. Their marriage was on the rocks. They began to talk about divorce. Which naturally leads to discussion of splits of property and assets. Well ... this guy didn't think his coin collection should be a part of that. He was fearful that this could be drawn into their legal spat.

So late one night, he took his box which had all the coins, & drove over to a friend's house out in the country. This other friend had a big backyard (like an acre or more in size). He explained that he needed to store this box with his friend "until things cooled down" back at his house. His friend and him decided to bury the box of coins in the back yard . They went out with a shovel, in the dark, and picked a spot. They dug a hole to perhaps 1 to 2 ft. deep. They made mental note of markers to remember it by. Eg.: at a certain fence post you take 7 steps in a certain direction. Then to the left of a prominent bush there, blah blah.

To be continued ..............
 
Months turned to a year. 1 yr. turned to 7 yrs. And finally the man's estate friction & legal troubles were behind him. He decided it was time to go fetch his coins. He goes back to his buddy's house, but .... they ran into a problem :

During that 7 yrs., the homeowner had done a lot of green thumb remodeling of his back yard. Moved bushes around, planted new roses and a veggie garden, etc... And the fence had been rickety, so he had since replaced that old fence. Thus : Fence posts not necessarily in the same exact place. So when the 2 men went out and started digging around in the place they could best remember : They were coming up empty handed ! It also didn't help that they'd buried it at night, because , shucks, 7 yrs later everything begins to look the same. Doh !

They figure that a metal detector should do the trick. So they went to Harbor Freight and bought a $99 special. But ... you guessed it, neither of them knew what the heck they were doing. And to add to the misery, the homeowner had installed gopher wire (like chicken screen ) around the root balls of all his rose-bushes. And subsequent rototilling turns some of that into confetti .

After 2 days of random holes, and all sorts of random yard junk, they reached out to a local metal detector dealer. After some discussion of renting a superior detector (thinking that perhaps their harbor freight unit was too wimpy), they finally just asked the dealer : Do you know of any experienced hobbyists that can simply be hired for this task ? The dealer gave them my phone #. That's how I came into the picture.

to be continued ..........
 
The guy called me, and explained the entire situation. Just as I've explained it here. I agreed that 100+ gold coins ought to be an easy signal. He said he had buried them in a plastic tupperware tackle-box sort of tray. So the box itself wouldn't be metal. It would be strictly the coins as the only metal. This sounded like an easy enough task.


We scheduled a day and time, and I met up with the 2 men . But after a few hours with my standard detector, I still couldn't find it !! I was beginning to get a real sinking feeling. Since , after hearing the story and the specifications, I'd told the fellow that it shouldn't be hard. But lo & behold, I wasn't finding it !! I triple-quizzed him "are you sure it's only like a foot deep" ? And now he's saying "maybe 1 to 2 ft". And in my mind I kept thinking that "100 coins" ought to be like a hubcap signal ! So why the heck can't I find this ??


And it was also getting very awkward because I got the eerie feeling that the owner of the coins was suspecting that his buddy might have dug up the coins himself 7 yrs. earlier. And was merely keeping them, and merely feigning this whole search thing. This wasn't said out loud , yet ... was inferred in remarks that the coin collector guy had said to me privately. So needless to say, each of these men had VERY VESTED INTERESTS in finding these coins.


to be continued ..............
 
I finally decided that this might be a job for a 2 box machine. I told them I would return the next day with different equipment. I borrowed a TM-808 from the dealer, and began searching again the next day. Finally, after about 30 minutes with that, I got a very faint whisper. Not quite was a hubcap sized object should sound like, but, heck, at this point I'm grasping for straws and digging anything. Yet this whisper was the box of gold coins ! The 2 men and their wives erupted in cheers ! Yay ! A moment of redemption !

We all brushed off the dirt, and opened it up to inspect the contents. The moment I saw inside the box, I immediately realized why it had been such a difficult target : Each individual coin was wrapped in plastic sleeves ! They weren't touching each other !! Therefore it wasn't a single composite target. It's like the same principle of a necklace where our machines are trying to see each link (coin) separately. So THAT was the reason for the super faint whisper. Doh !

I can't recall the exact tip I got for that, but I think it was on the order of $2k. Which I split with the detector dealer for his referral, and the TM-808 loaner.

hope ya all liked that little blast from the past :)
 
Interesting story. Would be cool if you had pics. You said the wives were all happy. So I guess he patched things up. I wonder if she was just waiting for the gold box to surface and if they're still married.
 
Awesome story Tom. Nice to have contacts like that.

And now Its all adding up to me ......How many gold coins have you dug "out in the wild" ???:shock: :lol::lol::lol::lol:
Jk....really cool story tho........
I can't tell you how many times I've knocked and the owner goes on to tell me the previous owner was an eccentric old loony and hes buried gold coins all over the back yard .......4 hours later empty handed ....yeah right ....why did I buy in to that crock story again ???:lol::?:
 
........ And now Its all adding up to me ......How many gold coins have you dug "out in the wild" ???:shock: :lol::lol::lol::lol: .......

haha, do I get to count these in my gold coin tally ? If so, instead of being at 16, I'm at 116. Woohoo ! :laughing:
 
......You said the wives were all happy. So I guess he patched things up. ....

Good question. I remember 2 ladies there at the time. Not sure what all family connections related to the 2 men.
 
Very cool story Tom. so as I see it, you knew the coins should be there and after some things you had to change up you were successful in finding these gold coins. That puts you on top of the gold coin find pyramid. Very cool, and a major well done.:waytogo::money:
 
The ex wife would have given you $4000.00 And then you could have done a little vacation out our way and found a large cent all by your onesie.
 
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