Buried Treasure in Miami
June 21st, 2010 | by EIC |It is a bit like the lottery, and may be just another variation of it, attracting the same folklore and urban legends that surround any state lottery. But in Florida, there is a much better chance of actually finding it. Buried treasure is something that makes everyone’s eyes light up and their minds start working overtime. The attraction of finding thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry, or gold is pretty easy to understand, so where there is more glitter, there is also more gold.
The city of Miami does have a delightful tendency to glitter. The shine of the jewels and the dresses of the locals and visitors who take part in the city’s huge club scene make for a wonderful sight any night of the week. It’s one of the main things that draws tourists to the city, booking nights in a 5 star hotel. Miami ’s treasures don’t just end here, however.
Because of its unusual location in the world, and the history of weather patterns in the area, it has an awful lot of stories about shipwrecks. Almost all of the great pirates in the world have been through these waters, and the stories tell that when they went down for the last time, they took their loot with them. There has been a lot of pirate booty uncovered here, and it’s almost enough to make one set out to buy their own metal detector.
These can be great fun, certainly, but it should also be approached just like the lottery. Someone might actually find something, but the odds are very much stacked against it. The promise of gold also brings the promise of swindlers and crooks, looking to cash in on the wild hopes of people who wish they had more. In 2006, there was a case of a man who almost lost $50,000 in a buried treasure scam .
The deal went like this: a man claimed there was treasure on his property, and showed him evidence of his suspicions. He dug up a clay pot (that he had buried himself) with a note promising riches, purported to be from Spanish pirates from an earlier time. If the two men put $100,000 together and placed in on an altar to pray for it, a curse would be lifted, and the treasure would be all theirs. Unfortunately for the clever thief, the police were in on it from the beginning, and he was arrested.
