From Now On, The First Thing To Tell Your Kids When You Want Them To Do Yard Work

April 27, 2005 2:25 PM

Buried Treasure Found In Backyard. (Google cache) "The men were digging holes to plant trees in a friend's back yard when Crebase hit a wooden crate buried less than a foot below the surface. Inside were seven rusted cylindrical cookie tins, including one where 'National Biscuit Company,' and the word 'Ginger,' were legible through the thick rust. They flipped one of the tops, which was fastened with two hooks, and found it 'jammed' with the money."
posted by Joey Michaels (34 comments total)

CNN link, but I think the local paper coverage is much more interesting.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:27 PM on April 27, 2005

PHEW I'm glad SOMEONE found my lost box of money! Thanks guys, please send it back to ...
posted by Peter H at 2:45 PM on April 27, 2005

See now, so its good that my dog digs up my backyard, she's searching for buried treasure!

This is cool! And its also every kid's dream, isn't it?
posted by fenriq at 2:48 PM on April 27, 2005

And you said planting trees for Earth Day was a waste of time!
posted by Specklet at 2:55 PM on April 27, 2005

I heard an interview with one of these guys on NPR yesterday, though the story was a bit different. In the interview the value was put at around 80K so far, with some of the most valuable bills yet to go through.

When pushed he estimated that the total value would be between 100K and 200K.
posted by UseyurBrain at 2:55 PM on April 27, 2005

"We were in shock and awe." Did they get attacked by US troops when they found it?
posted by knave at 3:01 PM on April 27, 2005

I saw these guys on the Today show this morning, and they looked like they were having so much fun. couldn't help but think it happened to a nice bunch of guys...now off to dig up my backyard.
posted by monkey!knife!fight! at 3:04 PM on April 27, 2005

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good metal detector?
posted by Kickstart70 at 3:08 PM on April 27, 2005

What a chance card.
posted by TwelveTwo at 3:13 PM on April 27, 2005

They should've been named Terrance and Phillip...

Let's look for treasure
posted by antron at 3:14 PM on April 27, 2005

This, combined with finding a real old-fashioned soda fountain still operating in my new neighborhood yesterday (patty melts! egg creams!) makes me giddy with joy. Is it Christmas again already?
posted by cali at 3:18 PM on April 27, 2005

Well, I buried a handful of change in a floss-box in my grandmother's backyard when I was about ten. Hopefully we'll hear about it in a hundred years.
posted by Citizen Premier at 3:31 PM on April 27, 2005

Yes, and some of that currency was those crazy exotic two dollar bills!
posted by fixedgear at 3:37 PM on April 27, 2005

Why doesn't this ever happen to me?
posted by btwillig at 3:57 PM on April 27, 2005

At least they didn't find somebodies pet dog or cat.
posted by substrate at 3:59 PM on April 27, 2005

i wonder who gets the money, the guy who dug it up or his friend who owns the yard?
posted by obeygiant at 4:02 PM on April 27, 2005

hopefully obeygiant, they split it evenly...
posted by schyler523 at 4:14 PM on April 27, 2005

Call me cynical and jaded, but I'd love to see the follow-up on this. Do these guys sell it? How do they divide up the money and do they remain friends? I see the potential for some major Treasure of the Sierra Madre action here.
posted by marxchivist at 4:17 PM on April 27, 2005

I heard one of the guys on NPR yesterday and he said that they haven't figured out exactly who is getting what, but that all of them are good friends and none of them are greedy, so they'll divvy it up according to who needs it most. I think they're figuring on getting about $150K out of the deal.
posted by stefanie at 4:33 PM on April 27, 2005

Although, in this article in the Chronicle, you can already see the cracks in their friendship:

Crebase, 24, says he's the one who made the find and has the final say about the money, though he'll do what's best for everyone. "I'm the one who found it," Crebase said. "Without my decision, nothing's going to happen."

But Billcliff, 27, said that's not true. "If one penny is spent, we all have to agree on its use," he told The Associated Press in a separate interview on Wednesday. "The truth was, I handed him the shovel, I told him where to start digging."

Didn't these folks learn anything from the movies? When friends find money, friendship dies! (in the movies, someone usually dies as well...)
posted by debris at 4:59 PM on April 27, 2005

I see the potential for some major Treasure of the Sierra Madre action here.

Things didn't turn out too good for the friends in A Simple Plan, either.

(BTW, Sam Raimi's last great movie...)
posted by fairmettle at 5:55 PM on April 27, 2005

I hadn't even thought of the relationship issues that would arise out of this! I was mostly excited about people finding loot in their backyard.

But, yeah, it is going to be interesting to learn if they stay friends or not.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:57 PM on April 27, 2005

Fortunately, what they found is not worth all that much money, so they'll probably be able to divide it equally without too many hard feelings. If what they found was worth millions, the friendship might be in danger, but as it is they'll all just get a nice chunk of change too small to drastically change their lifestyles.
posted by peeping_Thomist at 8:03 PM on April 27, 2005

Substrate, my family has seen to it that the inheritors of my original house will find plenty of those.
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:03 PM on April 27, 2005

It's a funny idea, to assume responsibility for a result which is pure chance. It is, of course, impossible. The last chain in the sequence of obvious events claims his rights.. but every link in the chain is the most important when greed is involved. The guy who sold them the trees is going to be in line next..
posted by Jack Karaoke at 10:49 PM on April 27, 2005

Why doesn't this ever happen to me?
Because you never went and dug up this guy's back yard?
posted by dg at 11:17 PM on April 27, 2005

Fortunately, what they found is not worth all that much money, so they'll probably be able to divide it equally without too many hard feelings. If what they found was worth millions, the friendship might be in danger

You're kidding, right? I've seen friends get into fights over the price of a breakfast. Five will get you ten these guys aren't friends in a month.
posted by languagehat at 5:49 AM on April 28, 2005

I saw these guys on the Today show this morning

Are the guys who found the treasure MeFites? I mean, these things come in threes, don't they?
posted by Doohickie at 6:52 AM on April 28, 2005

Wow. Sounds exactly like a hypothetical for 1st year Law School Property. Who gets to keep it, the property owner, or the finder?

. . . Yeah, I can't remember, either. But, since Property usually adheres to sing-songey cliches, I'm gonna say the finder's keepers rule applies.
posted by Iason at 11:49 AM on April 28, 2005

If anyone is still a watching this thread, a bit of an update here.
posted by marxchivist at 6:56 AM on April 29, 2005

I was just coming to deliver the same update, Marxchivist.

Maybe it was Peter H's lost box of money after all.
posted by yhbc at 7:10 AM on April 29, 2005

the lesson here is, if you ever find anything -- money, a fingertip ... whatever you do, don't tell the media.
posted by crunchland at 7:40 AM on April 29, 2005

Found in an attic where they were doing some roofing work. Shoulda kept their mouths shut. Cops said if they hadn't been such attention whores they would probably have gotten away with it.
posted by fixedgear at 9:17 AM on April 29, 2005

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Well, I am sad that this wasn't a "for real" discovery of buried treasure, since that was an awesome story, but I am amused at the aftermath.

Damn, way to replace a great story with a silly story.
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:03 PM on May 6, 2005