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[–] 159 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (45 children)

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/

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  • [–] 149 points 1 month ago (35 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 99 points 1 month ago (31 children)

    Same, but probably difficult to turn $10M in gold into spending money without someone noticing.

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  • [–] 58 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (14 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 82 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (10 children)

    hundred thousand in cash

    groceries

    In the U.S., that would get you enough food for weeks!

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  • [–] 24 points 1 month ago (9 children)

    Seriously. Loaded up on groceries this weekend, and total cost for 1.75 carts was well over $600

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  • [–] 18 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    What the actual fuck is going on over there. My condolences

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  • [–] 27 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    Just some minor societal collapse. Don't worry, we'll totally get better...

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Honestly I'm hoping the feds collapse because frankly speaking they are the problem and I don't see it getting better.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    How much do you reckon groceries will cost then? From what I've seen, collapse brings neither groceries nor safety.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    In the short term it'll certainly suck but long term it'd probably end up being better for everyone, the problem with the fed is both a short term and long term problem. While groceries may get expensive for a couple years it's unlikely theyd be nearly as fluctuate as they are now simply cause the states would be incapable of doing nearly as much stupid shit.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    It’s not usually just thst groceries get expensive. They usually get incredibly scarce too.

    People starve when things collapse.

    Revolutions happened with people starve.

    Lots of people die when revolutions happen.

    None of it is necessary if democracy can actually happen. We need citizens united, first past the post, and the electoral college systems removed. Then shit can change.

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  • While I agree I also would like to point out that positive change is extremely unlikely at this point, it's not just one or two points within the institutions but basically every institution. I suspect that we have long passed the point of reform without some level of collapse and frankly I'd rather the collapse that destroys the US and prevents it from existing again than the one which will allow similar issues to reform.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 weeks ago

    contract work is 100% the ideal place to spend suspicious cash, it usually costs a ton but the work is done by tiny companies or straight up a single individual. They might not even feel a need to keep note of what work was done..

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    That's why you bury it in the backyard and only use little bits at a time.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

    But then you risk some kid digging it up and turning it in to the authorities.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month 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.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    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

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

    I thought gold was soft enough to be easily cut by a lot of other more common metals

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Time legitimizes things too. Leave some to your grandkids in the will. Tell them to wait at least a decade before cashing anything in and then to not do it all at once. A decade or two and they'll try to sell it, show the will as proof they own the gold. Where did grandpa himself get it from? Who the fuck knows, not like he gave us documents and it's been too long to ask anyone who might know.

    Unless the tax authority directly investigates then, they should be good.

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  • [–] 71 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month 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 ...

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    Yeah he should have just brought them to the grocery store and paid with them. Idiot.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [+] -13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

    Breathe. Not you.

    You said you wouldn't turn them in. So what would you do with them? How would you even begin to spend them?

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  • [–] 236 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 115 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Police: o thx for the 13 gold bars!

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  • [–] 78 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Police: Hey, chief! Someone just handed in 8 gold bars!

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  • [–] 66 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

    Police chief to the press: The young man turned in 3 gold bars to us, what an example

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  • [–] 67 points 1 month 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.

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  • [–] 45 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    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!

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 26 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    7*7=49

    Must have buried a square of them (wink wink)

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  • [–] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)
    [–] 17 points 1 month ago

    I definitely would’ve absconded with that shit

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Saved one for himself in the case that no one claims it.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    That bulging thigh pocket looking kinda sus.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago

    Hands down would have taken it all and never spoken to anyone about it but the people I sold them to.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago

    7^2 is a very pleasing number.

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  • [–] 33 points 1 month ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] 22 points 1 month ago (9 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    Melt it and make a bunch of gold rings. Pawn those a few at a time.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago

    I counted, 49 bars in the picture. Hopefully that saves someone else the trouble.

    Tap for spoilerUnless I'm lying...

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  • [–] 26 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Why the fuck would you give them to authorities?

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    What would you have done? 🙂

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month 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

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    I think finding the gold would be a strong motivation to discover a way to launder it. I don't know how to do it, though.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago* (3 children)

    Long term plan, but...

    Begin legitimately prospecting a piece of land legally in Alaska, document that you do so, do some substantial digging/panning etc.

    Melt a large bar down into much smaller amounts that are worth only around $500 to $1000 in weight. Sell the melted gold at a local gold precious metals dealer in small batches over the course of many months/years. Claim the profit on your taxes as spoils from your prospecting.

    This technique would not work with huge amounts or quantities, and even as I described it, it may bring an audit, since it is likely most prospectors are not that successful.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    Except that you’d also have to prove that you know how to refine it to explain why you’re selling pure gold.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    That's not insurmountable to learn, even something like watching Cody's Labs videos on gold reclamation would be a good starting point.

    Overall it would still be tricky to fully pull off without raising suspicion unless the amounts were kept consistently low, at least if you kept it to a 1 person operation.

    If you started a gold mining company, hired people to run it legitimately, you could fudge the books on how much was actually mined, sifted, and processed, that probably wouldn't get a close inspection.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    You can easily buy gold in most countries. I don't think you'd even need to try as hard as the other person suggested.

    If you really wanted to be cautious, you really just need to remove anything identifiable and slowly sell them at different "we buy gold" places. You could even get fancy and buy a coin press. If anyone asks (they probably won't, these places aren't exactly scrupulous), your grandpa collected gold before he passed and left his collection to you.

    Or if you want to be a bit less cautious, just claim you found them in your yard.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    No sir I did not find anything.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    what happened to the one in the top left lol

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