How many times have you seen that awkward guy at the beach with his pants tucked into his socks scouring the sand with a metal detector and wondered if he’s ever found anything valuable?
We laugh at him somewhat and tell ourselves that he probably has jars at home full of bottle caps and used pieces of tinfoil, but what if, just what if, he’s ever found something extraordinary? A long-lost diamond ring, a rare coin or an entire hoard of Viking silver?
What about a treasure chest full of gold?
Such was the case this past Memorial Day weekend on the crowded shores of California’s Venice Beach. Knowing that the beach was going to be packed for the holiday weekend, a team of pranksters decided to clandestinely bury a treasure chest full of faux-gold bullion deep in the sand at 2 a.m. and then raise it the next day amongst the excited crowds.
The only problem was that the gold bullion was chocolate coins – but nobody needs to know that.
At one point the metal-detecting team and their horde of frothing onlookers even draw attention from local authorities who inform them that you can’t, in fact, just unearth buried treasure chests in public without telling anyone. Outnumbered by the glory-hungry crowd, however, the authorities are brushed aside and the effort to extract the bullion culminates in a triumphant crescendo, despite being only temporary.
Look for metal detector sales to spike this week all along the West Coast.