mad4wrecks
Bronze Member
- Dec 20, 2004
- 2,263
- 109
- Detector(s) used
- Aquapulse, DetectorPro Headhunter, Fisher F75
- Primary Interest:
- Shipwrecks
Tampa-area teens search for buried treasure, find toxic chemical leak
A man's tale about a hidden fortune ends with a boy hurt and hundreds evacuated.
Abbie Vansickle | St. Petersburg Times
November 22, 2007
RIVERVIEW, FL - Fresh out of prison, Robert Fellion slipped easily back into a life of crime, his sister says. He brought home guns, gold jewelry and cash, recalls Vanessa Fellion, 27.
A few months before his suicide in September, he made her a promise: If you ever need anything, look under the U.S. Highway 301 bridge at the Alafia River. You'll be set for life.
Fellion's words twisted like a game of telephone and led a 16-year-old boy to drill into an ammonia pipeline beneath the Alafia River bridge in search of the hidden loot, Vanessa Fellion said.
The pipe puncture burned the boy and released a cloud of the dangerous chemical over a Riverview community, sending the boy to the hospital and forcing hundreds to evacuate.
Vanessa Fellion never believed the story. Her brother had been in trouble all his life. Their mother lived in a tent behind a gas station. No one seemed flush with funds.
"If I thought there was a fortune under the bridge, don't you think I would have been down there?" she asked.
Still, she couldn't help but think of the tale whenever she crossed the bridge. A month ago, she drove over the bridge with her son and his friend in the car. That's when she repeated the story.
Her son's friend told his cousin and a 16-year-old about the money, Fellion said. The teens decided to go on a treasure hunt for it, she said.
She said she heard nothing about it until a deputy showed up at her home the night of the leak.
"Crazy," she said. "It was totally stupid on their part. If you see a pipe that's capped, it's capped for a reason."
A man's tale about a hidden fortune ends with a boy hurt and hundreds evacuated.
Abbie Vansickle | St. Petersburg Times
November 22, 2007
RIVERVIEW, FL - Fresh out of prison, Robert Fellion slipped easily back into a life of crime, his sister says. He brought home guns, gold jewelry and cash, recalls Vanessa Fellion, 27.
A few months before his suicide in September, he made her a promise: If you ever need anything, look under the U.S. Highway 301 bridge at the Alafia River. You'll be set for life.
Fellion's words twisted like a game of telephone and led a 16-year-old boy to drill into an ammonia pipeline beneath the Alafia River bridge in search of the hidden loot, Vanessa Fellion said.
The pipe puncture burned the boy and released a cloud of the dangerous chemical over a Riverview community, sending the boy to the hospital and forcing hundreds to evacuate.
Vanessa Fellion never believed the story. Her brother had been in trouble all his life. Their mother lived in a tent behind a gas station. No one seemed flush with funds.
"If I thought there was a fortune under the bridge, don't you think I would have been down there?" she asked.
Still, she couldn't help but think of the tale whenever she crossed the bridge. A month ago, she drove over the bridge with her son and his friend in the car. That's when she repeated the story.
Her son's friend told his cousin and a 16-year-old about the money, Fellion said. The teens decided to go on a treasure hunt for it, she said.
She said she heard nothing about it until a deputy showed up at her home the night of the leak.
"Crazy," she said. "It was totally stupid on their part. If you see a pipe that's capped, it's capped for a reason."
