Treasure Chest with Gold Coins Close-Up. Photo: VisualField (Getty)
It turns out you don’t need to risk your life traversing the Rocky Mountains to increase your chances of finding buried treasure. You simply need to live on Staten Island.
A couple who lives in the New York City borough knew there was something hiding in the trees for quite some time. They thought it was an old, rusty electrical box. After a storm blew over the surrounding foliage and cleanup began, they discovered the object was an old, rusty safe. And it was full of real-life buried treasure — Gold. Diamonds. Engagement rings. $52,000 in cash.
All of it crammed inside of the battered safe.
But before busting out the truffle shuffle, they also found a piece of paper with an address on it — the address right next door. Yup. It appeared this once-in-a-lifetime discovery was their neighbors’.
“First, I knocked on the door and I asked them if they were ever robbed and they said they were,” Matthew said.
According to the New York Police Department, a burglary was reported at their neighbors’ home the day after Christmas in 2011. The only thing taken was the safe. It had a large amount of cash, jewelry and other items inside: a total of $52,000 worth of property, police said.
That’s right. Instead of keeping the treasure likely worth well into the six figures, these good samaritans gave it all back to their neighbors. Talk about the best neighbors ever. These people make Truman Burbank look like a hit man.
Their names: Matthew and Maria. Their reward? Hopefully something better than a pat on the back. Can we get this lovely couple a trip to Florida? Yankees tickets? A free Shake Shack burger? ANYTHING?!
If they’d hawked it, then this would be another story: Man Gets Probation For Pocketing $1000 He Found On The Ground
As far as why they returned the goods, Maria said, “It wasn’t even a question. It wasn’t ours.” Matthew then added that the reward is “good karma.”
I would simply like to know who on Earth would steal a safe and bury it in the neighbors’ yard? Worst prank of all time, or the world’s dumbest criminal? And who puts a self addressed note inside their safe? Very bizarre.
You can watch the full story below. In the meantime, I’m headed to the hardware store to buy a shovel. I’ll be in my back yard if you need me.
Josh Helmuth is a sports reporter in St. Louis who contributes to Mandatory.
