Searching for buried treasure in the San Francisco Bay Area is hardly a straightforward endeavor.
The most obvious spot to look is Treasure Island, but that was only
constructed by the federal government in the 1930s--making it an
unlikely candidate to find anything more substantial than a few pairs of
trendy sunglasses accidentally dropped by concertgoers during the
island's yearly music festival.
Drake's Bay, the oft-rumored West Marin hideout of famed British
pirate Sir Francis Drake, seems like a better bet; however, the most
famous piece of treasure ever found there, a brass plaque supposedly
left by Drake himself, was later proven to be an elaborate hoax.
That pretty much leaves aspiring Northern California treasure hunters
with only one option: storage units in Contra Costa County sold by
reality television stars.
As unlikely as it sounds, when a San Jose man looked through the
contents of a storage locker he bought from Dan and Laura Dotson, the
hosts of the A&E reality series "Storage Wars," he was shocked to
discover a chest filled with 1,700 gold doubloons valued at $500,000.
It's common practice in California for the contents of a storage unit
to be auctioned off when the renter misses three consecutive months of
payment. The unit's previous lessee was an elderly woman who passed away
earlier this year. Payments lapsed after her death and the storage
facility turned to the Dotsons' company, American Auctioneers, to handle
the sale of the items left inside.
The
lucky treasure hunter has declined to identify himself publicly. "I
called the buyer, and the buyer wanted nothing to do with [publicity],"
Dan Dotson told the San Jose Mercury News.
"I talked with the manager of the storage unit and asked, 'Can I
mention you,' and he said no. So I would like to share, but it would
absolutely cost me an account."
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
The buyer purchased the unit for about $1,100, Dotson said. He also bought another unit owned by the same person for about $600. "He did a seasoned buyer move by buying both units," she said. "He also had a skilled eye to buy that unit with the Rubbermaid totes because whatever was inside was probably worth more than what's inside a cardboard box."
The box allegedly weighed so much it took three people to pick it up,
which was a clue that something valuable was inside--or at least
something heavy.
Unfortunately, American Auctioneers only videotapes a fraction of
their up to 3,000 auction each year, and this one wasn't caught on tape.
The premiere of the second season of "Storage Wars" hits the air this
Tuesday night at 10pm on A&E. Take a look at a preview below:
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