• crypt0cler1c@infosec.pub
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    1 day ago

    49 gold bars?!? 39 gold bars is a crazy thing to find digging. I wonder how much you get taxed when you find 29 gold bars. Would you report 19 gold bars? If I found 9 gold bars I think at most I’d be able to part with 1 of the 2 gold bars that I found.

  • piconaut@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    I can’t believe someone buried 49 gold bars over here!
    Where did they even get 43 gold bars in the first place?
    Oh well, I better go turn these 38 gold bars in to the police.

  • Agent641@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    while digging

    See, this is why it’s very important for men, and women, to dig. Wherever you are, home, beach, park, just have a bit of a dig. It’s fun and free!

    • toynbee@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      When I was a little kid, I started digging a hole in my back yard. I only stopped because my dad told me it was compromising the foundation of our house.

      At the time, I was convinced I would find triceratops fossils … Not sure where I got that idea.

      • Agent641@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Amazing. My brother and I once dug a hole in the backyard that was so deep that our mother bought us a playstation to get us to stop. Children really do yearn for the mines

      • KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Pfft, and let the gas company get all the spoils? Even if you don’t find gold down there, you might find precious precious gas!

  • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    There is absolutely no way I’d have turned those in.

    Edit: I found the article, the lad may have a payout coming to him.

    It is now held in Brussels as authorities investigate its legal ownership. Belgian law mandates a five-year waiting period for claimants; afterward, the find could be divided between Kobe and the property owner if no owner comes forward and it’s not criminal money.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/katematthams/2026/08/15/summer-job-student-finds-gold-stash-worth-over-10-million/

    • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      Hope he gets his due. I cannot fathom the mind that sees Fuck You-money and immediately thinks “oh gosh, I need to give this to a cop!” But I’m sure he meant well.

        • Tanis Nikana@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Yeah, if I found like a hundred thousand in cash, it wouldn’t get into a bank account, I’d just be buying groceries and retail purchases in cash for a long time, and saving the money I would have spent normally. Maybe asking places to make change so if the serial numbers get noted, things get spread about a bit.

          • plateee@piefed.social
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            1 day ago

            Don’t forget any home improvement tasks. Need your yard leveled? Landscapers would love to give a slight cash discount.

            Tree needs taking down? Cash.

            Tuckpointing a chimney? Cash.

            Annoyingly, you can’t actually use “cash” cash for a cash down payment on a house. Mortgage lenders like to know where the money is coming from.

        • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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          20 hours ago

          I’d keep working my day job and melt them into basic jewelry like rings and crosses and pawn them over time. Say I’m getting them at estate sales or something. Use the cash for day to day purchases, buy used cars, etc. Could probably start flipping other stuff to generate more income/muddy the waters in case anyone does look further into it. Gradually work lesser amounts of cash into my bank account. Wouldn’t need to buy anything crazy because I have simple tastes.

        • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          Exactly, even if he kept 1 bar any place he could legally exchange it will have to give the appropriate tax documents since its such a high amount

            • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              True, but you would have to do it so slowly to avoid detection. Small pieces over years maybe decades to avoid detection

              • Bitch Pudding@lemmy.zip
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                2 days ago

                Still comes out to a lifechanging amount of money for most people, I would think. Maybe some bars left over for your descendants

      • Ex Nummis@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        He wasn’t alone when he found it. It was an entire construction team, building and digging on a municipally owned site which was publicly accessible and almost certainly monitored, if remotely.

        There was no conceivable way to keep that find quiet under those circumstances.

        So if he did manage to pinch off one, props to him.

      • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Idk. If I lived in a place where healthcare was a right, in which I had reasonable expectations of having my basic needs met, where I felt I didn’t need to scramble day in day out just to survive …

      • cobysev@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I have a friend who used to do exactly this. He used to be a bit of a conspiracy nut and didn’t believe in the stability (or validity, for that matter) of the US dollar. He wanted to do all his monetary exchanges in gold and silver, which were very stable and reliable at the time (about 2 decades ago).

        I don’t know how exactly, but he converted any cash he earned into gold and then worked out a deal with his local grocery store to buy his groceries with tiny bits of gold.

        He was a good kid, if not a little dumb. I think the grocery store humored him. Besides, gold is valuable, so they may have been just ripping him off.

        • Ex Nummis@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          If he hoarded his gold instead of spent it, he’d be up about 100% over the last five years alone. Only crypto would’ve given that kind of return in the same time span, with far greater risk.

          • emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 day ago

            Wow. So if he had gone without food his couple of hundreds of dollars worth of gold would have been worth a couple hundred more dollars right now.

      • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The irony of being called an idiot by someone so dim that “taking the bars to the grocery store” is the best they could come up with. I’m not even offended.

  • megopie@beehaw.org
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    1 day ago

    This is one of those things where it’s probably more hassle than it’s worth to keep them. Like, you can’t really do much with the gold on its own, you’d have to sell it, and you can’t exactly just take it to a pawn shop.

    Like, you’d have to go to some big time gold dealer and then they’d be like “yah, cool, where the fuck did you get this? Do you have a bill of purchase? Is there a mark on here from who ever minted it? I’m going to have to tell the authorities about this, don’t want to be liable if it turns out you stole this or obtained it illegally”

    Sure you could try and find a less than reputable buyer who won’t ask questions, but now you’re risking getting caught up in some organized crime nonsense assuming you can even find one without pre-existing contacts.

    Better just to hand it over and be done with the mess. Hope there is some sort of official reward for doing it. Maybe get some money through doing interviews about it.

      • megopie@beehaw.org
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        1 day ago

        Would have to go to thousands of pawnshops to sell off that many rings, and then just hope none of them talk to each other. Or no one looks in to the influx of suspiciously similar gold rings on the second hand market. Then find a plausible excuse for where all the money in your account came from when people start asking questions about it.

        Just, a huge legal risk over all.

    • Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      Those look like at least 10oz bars, so 49x60,000 each is almost 3 million dollars.

      Even if lawyers billed half a million, and you got to keep 1/3rd of it, you would still be up a half million.

  • rbn@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    Yes, we can confirm the delivery of 45 gold bars at our police department.

  • Nounka@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    Would it be interesting to say… He Belgian dude, i’m your long lost sister…

    • tjoa@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Maybe it’s illegal, it’s vastly different from country to country but last time I checked finding treasure on your own property does not mean you own it 100%. Which i think is crazy but yea.

      • zarathustrad@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I remember when we could “find” treasure currently owned by other civilizations and throw it on a boat, take it home and just claim it was “found”. Times change I guess.

      • bertlewirth@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Which is pretty fucking stupid because if a mining company finds loot, they’re allowed to go mine it for decades and make billions.

      • MycelialMass@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Transport it out to international waters. Put it on a boat. Sink the boat. Salvage the boat. Pretty sure its finders keepers if its ship salvage, might have to wait a few years.

      • Mr.Chewy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Sold it legally if able; sold it illegally if not. I’d prefer travelling all the way to albania one gold bar every summer for the rest of my life (while having it hidden in the meanwhile) than giving it away for free