File this under: today’s loss!
12 years ago, I was hunting the lot of a once nice house in eastern Massachusetts dating to the 1790’s, at that time (12 years ago) owned by a developer for the land it was on, and being allowed to fall into decay. I was young, figured I wasn’t hurting anyone who cared, and wanted to salvage some history before the dozer came, so I was there without permission. I found a few nice things, including a commemorative medallion from the 1893 Chicago world’s fair (will post photo next time I get to my parents place, where old finds are), and was just about to quit when I swiped my detector under a bush. It went crazy, and it didn’t take long to see why. I bent down, and underneath some dead grass and windblown trash was a broken wooden jewelry box, 6-8” wide.
I was stunned to find it holding a few dozen pieces of women’s jewelry, some of which were marked 14k and white gold. I had found real treasure. I also noticed though that many of the pieces carried the pink breast cancer ribbon. And as the box was on the surface, and the wood broken but not even very grey, I realized that this probably belonged to someone who would still like very much to get it back. My guess was that it was stolen, and subsequently lost during some frenzied act. I weighed my options briefly, knowing the risk of calling myself in while trespassing, but thought of the woman or family missing the cancer memorial jewelry, and dialed my local PD. They arrived, took my report and the box, and gave me a claim form to fill out.
The form sat on my truck’s bench seat for a while, got some stains on it, I got a couple speeding tickets, and one for smoking a joint, which further discouraged me from reaching out to the department.. I eventually lost the form. Life went on - work, dating, a move to a new state, and I figured the box was quickly claimed. I could’ve used the money many times over the last 12 years, but the jewelry box never crossed my mind in that context, and I figured my failure to submit the form disqualified me. For some reason, last week, the box crossed my mind, and now married and settled, with a business, I realized I had no reason not to dial up the police and see if I couldn’t find out what happened to it, though I figured any info was a long shot.
Lo and behold, after a few calls back and forth with a detective at the department, they found my record from that day. They held the box for 7 years! Then they auctioned it off during a cleaning of the evidence vault. The sale price record was going to be harder for the patient detective to dig up, so I thanked him for his time. I would obviously have liked the owner to have claimed it, and the notion that it went into the same fund as my speeding tickets was hard to take, but lesson learned! I shouldn’t have put myself into a compromised situation without permission, leading to nervous logic, and I hope you all enjoy the story of the treasure, at least, as it’s all I’ve got!
12 years ago, I was hunting the lot of a once nice house in eastern Massachusetts dating to the 1790’s, at that time (12 years ago) owned by a developer for the land it was on, and being allowed to fall into decay. I was young, figured I wasn’t hurting anyone who cared, and wanted to salvage some history before the dozer came, so I was there without permission. I found a few nice things, including a commemorative medallion from the 1893 Chicago world’s fair (will post photo next time I get to my parents place, where old finds are), and was just about to quit when I swiped my detector under a bush. It went crazy, and it didn’t take long to see why. I bent down, and underneath some dead grass and windblown trash was a broken wooden jewelry box, 6-8” wide.
I was stunned to find it holding a few dozen pieces of women’s jewelry, some of which were marked 14k and white gold. I had found real treasure. I also noticed though that many of the pieces carried the pink breast cancer ribbon. And as the box was on the surface, and the wood broken but not even very grey, I realized that this probably belonged to someone who would still like very much to get it back. My guess was that it was stolen, and subsequently lost during some frenzied act. I weighed my options briefly, knowing the risk of calling myself in while trespassing, but thought of the woman or family missing the cancer memorial jewelry, and dialed my local PD. They arrived, took my report and the box, and gave me a claim form to fill out.
The form sat on my truck’s bench seat for a while, got some stains on it, I got a couple speeding tickets, and one for smoking a joint, which further discouraged me from reaching out to the department.. I eventually lost the form. Life went on - work, dating, a move to a new state, and I figured the box was quickly claimed. I could’ve used the money many times over the last 12 years, but the jewelry box never crossed my mind in that context, and I figured my failure to submit the form disqualified me. For some reason, last week, the box crossed my mind, and now married and settled, with a business, I realized I had no reason not to dial up the police and see if I couldn’t find out what happened to it, though I figured any info was a long shot.
Lo and behold, after a few calls back and forth with a detective at the department, they found my record from that day. They held the box for 7 years! Then they auctioned it off during a cleaning of the evidence vault. The sale price record was going to be harder for the patient detective to dig up, so I thanked him for his time. I would obviously have liked the owner to have claimed it, and the notion that it went into the same fund as my speeding tickets was hard to take, but lesson learned! I shouldn’t have put myself into a compromised situation without permission, leading to nervous logic, and I hope you all enjoy the story of the treasure, at least, as it’s all I’ve got!
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