creative writers' blog

planted money

 abuse

The three of us were avid metal detector users. We spent every Saturday driving all over Eastern North Carolina enjoying our hobby. We three spent a lot of Saturdays in White Lake since we all hade submersible units. There was no limit to the amount of good “things” you can find there. Find ranged from pennies, quarters, gold charms and valuable rings. Class rings always had the school and the initials of the owner. If we found a class ring we would contact the school and have them get in touch with the owner and tell the owner to call us. When we would get the call a meeting was arranged to restore the ring to its owner. THIS WAS DONE FOR NO FEE. WE WOULD NOT ACCEPT REMUNERATION.

On a Wednesday night one of my hunting partners was contacted by one of five brothers with a strange request. It gets a little hairy here but I must explain.

The father of these five brothers and his wife were separated and in the midst of a bitter divorce settlement. The wife had left and moved to Delaware. She was proceeding with the legal process to get what she was owed. She called and called to her husband but he wasn’t about to settle with her. Then he had an about face. He called her and said if she would come back down here he would give her what she had coming.

The wife summonsed all the courage she had and she and her mother came to settle up.

It was Sunday afternoon when the father shot and killed the grandmother and then the mother and then he shot himself.

After going to several banks in the area it was discovered the father had emptied all his accounts and left the kids with nothing but a house and a small lot to divide. The kids varied in age with two being pre teenagers. The all had tried everything they knew to find the money that they suspected the old man had buried somewhere around the house.

The oldest brother came to us and wanted to borrow a metal detector to find the money. We gladly obliged him. He returned dishearten and asked if we would go and try to find the money.

It was a cold Saturday when my friend and I ventured into the next county and gave it our all. There are certain places where one will hide money is they intend to keep it and not put it in the bank. One place will be near an immoveable object. I thought of this on Friday Night before and made a list of places to search.

As we began our “hunting” I saw that there was a shed with 10 poles holding it up. I asked the brothers if there was any place their dad spent a lot of time? I was told that he stayed under that shed a great deal of the time working on lawn mowers. I knew I had found a likely spot to hide money.

My search of that shed began around the posts. The boys had become fatigued with the search and had gone off to the house. I played my metal machine around the first post in the back of the shed. Nothing! When I did the same around the second or middle post in the back I got a strong indication that there was something there. I pushed away the soft soil and there I saw a Sky City bag wrapped around a lid from a mason jar. At this point I dug no further but instead called one of the brothers to dig it up. (I never wanted them to think that I had found the money and stolen it from them, which I could have easily because I was alone when I found it.) When the brother got there he began digging like a dog-with both hands. He unearthed a wide-mouthed mason jar with wrapped in that bag and he tore it off like a hungry dog after a biscuit. He pulled it up from the ground and it made a sucking sound as it came out of the soft dirt.

He carried that jar to a table not far way and the counting began. There was $21,000 in that jar.

I continued my search from post to post and at the second post I tried I got another indication from the metal detector. This time I dug it up and held it in the air still in its own Sky City bag. “Hey fellows check this out!” I yelled. One of them came running over to me and retrieved the jar. When tallied with the other it was discovered that $30,000 was in that last jar.

That was a total of $51,000 found in less than three hours. The kids gave my partner and me $1,000 for finding it.

We were jubilant to say the least that we could help the boys out that way.

Filed under: Lifestyle