Friends find treasure buried in backyard
Wednesday, April 27, 2005

METHUEN, Massachusetts (AP) -- It's the stuff of fantasies, and Tim Crebase found it buried under two feet of earth in his own backyard.

There, he and friend Barry Villcliff found a box stuffed with cash and gold and silver certificates, some more than a century old.

The buried treasure is worth more than $100,000, according to a coin shop owner.

"I was thinking, 'I've never seen anything like this in my life,"' Domenic Mangano, owner of Village Coin Shop in Plaistow, New Hampshire.

Crebase said the find came three weeks ago when he and Villcliff were trying to dig up a small tree.

Crebase, 23, heard a thud and saw that he'd hit a piece of wood. Another look, and he saw the wood was part of a two-foot-wide box.

He ripped the top off and found nine rusted cans that he and Villcliff, 27, cracked open to find about 1,800 bills, including more than 900 $1 bills, 200 $2 bills, and 300 $20 bills dated from 1899 to 1929.

There were also piles of gold and silver certificates and scores of notes from local banks in Methuen, Haverhill, Amesbury, Newburyport and beyond.

They took the stash to Mangano's shop later that day.

"I'm a pessimist; I was waiting until I got a professional review before I jumped to any conclusions," Villcliff said. "Tim, however, was singing and dancing. He was ranting like a rabid monkey."

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/27/treasure....d.ap/index.html

Some people have all the luck, but good for them.

Catherine

so... how are they gonna split it? it actually only belongs to the backyard owner...

do i smell litigation?



-t-

Why is it that whenever I'd dig up stuff in my backyard back east all I ever found was broken glass, old clay pipes, and broken crockery?

I must have lived in the wrong part of Massachusetts.

My great grandfather didn't trust banks after Black Tuesday and hid his money in the walls. When he died in the early 1930s the family never found his money. No one had thought to ask where he had hidden it. I'm sure someone may find it when they do renovations. I'm sure that the old bills may be worth more in the collector's market.

I attend an art class that is mostly made up of older people, like myself. Today, several were talking about this treasure discovery. One lady mentioned that she'd once bought an old bedroom suite from a fellow who was cleaning out his recently deceased mother's house. He wanted things moved quickly out of his way, so my friend got the suite for $200.

My friend's son is an antiques dealer so, after they got the suite home, he began to pull out drawers, looking for any kind of manufacturing mark. The man who sold them the suite hadn't bothered to clean out the drawers, so many of the deceased woman's clothes were still there.

My friend said she was exclaiming on how disrespectful she thought this was, when her son said, "Mom, look here."

Taped to the underside of each drawer was a $100 bill. Four drawers = $400. She said she got the suite AND made $200. I asked my friend if she'd thought about giving the money back to the son cleaning out his dead mother's house. "No," she said. "Not after I saw how disrespectful he'd been to his mother. If he'd had a respectful attitude and not acted with such haste in getting rid of her stuff, he would've found the money. As it was, he deserved what he DIDN'T get."

I agreed.

Catherine

Update:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/29/buried.tr...e.ap/index.html

Catherine