German buys Cabinet with 2.5Kg of Gold Bars Hidden inside

[AUS-97HORN 11812]

He turned it in to the police and will get a $2,900 finder fee..... 

 

but man, thats about $96,700 worth of gold at todays gold price per gram. 

I get the idea of doing the right thing.... but I dont think there is any chance in hell of me turning in 2.5 kg worth of obviously hidden gold bars to the cops.

I realize the gold could have been stolen and since it was bars, it would be easy to identify if stolen, but I would have taken my chances and bought a damn smelter to melt the gold into smaller "homemade" nuggets that I would have sold off to gold buyers telling them I collect old broken gold jewelry and melt it myself.  Sell a small nugget of ~100 grams every 3-4 months to 3-4 diff gold buyers in my city.   Would take about 3 years to turn it all into tax-free cash.

 

https://www.thelocal.de/20180920/treasure

 

 

 

[Trey3216 15350]

12 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

He turned it in to the police and will get a $2,900 finder fee..... 

 

but man, thats about $96,700 worth of gold at todays gold price per gram. 

I get the idea of doing the right thing.... but I dont think there is any chance in hell of me turning in 2.5 kg worth of obviously hidden gold bars to the cops.

I realize the gold could have been stolen and since it was bars, it would be easy to identify if stolen, but I would have taken my chances and bought a damn smelter to melt the gold into smaller "homemade" nuggets that I would have sold off to gold buyers telling them I collect old broken gold jewelry and melt it myself.  Sell a small nugget of ~100 grams every 3-4 months to 3-4 diff gold buyers in my city.   Would take about 3 years to turn it all into tax-free cash.

 

https://www.thelocal.de/20180920/treasure

 

 

 

'Apple Watching You' thread seems apropos.  

[RPM 26329]

I'm about as honest as they come, but yeah, I'd have kept the gold unless the previous owner contacted me. Volunteer it to the cops? NFW

[El Diablo 4232]

Wasn't it a year or so ago someone bought a surplus tank that had a large stash of gold? Need to start hitting up the yard sales.

[gsoda3 3274]

let's say you melt it down and sell it but then get caught-  what are the consequences?

[conVINCEd 21469]

Your honor, I would like to plea finders keepers.

[Parliament 14274]

2 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

Your honor, I would like to plea finders keepers.

[Kyle 207]

I just listened to a true crime podcast about the guy in NY who left in his basement after he sold his house the barrel with his dead mistress and their child in it. I think I would have been more likely to take that than my gold bars. I would assume the bars came with the cabinet.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Kyle

[TKthunder2 4996]

On 9/24/2018 at 2:07 PM, gsoda3 said:

let's say you melt it down and sell it but then get caught-  what are the consequences?

About all they can get you for (assuming you melt it and they don’t somehow track it back to a crime which would open all sorts of possibilities) would be money laundering and possibly tax evasion.

[52-80 19206]

was fuer eins idiot

 

 

 

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

TheJewsHidThis.gif

[bschoolprof 6271]

I know a little German.

[jimmyjazz 46001]

11 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

I know a little German.

[tbone_ 14134]

Wasn’t this the premise of plot of no country for old men?

 

Keeping the money didn’t turn out so well.

 

[bigshark88 388]

About all they can get you for (assuming you melt it and they don’t somehow track it back to a crime which would open all sorts of possibilities) would be money laundering and possibly tax evasion.

Many states in the US have a "lost and found" statute that makes it a crime to not report "abandoned property". Not sure whether it would apply under these facts but it'd be the starting place for my local prosecutors.

No idea what the law in Germany is though.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[TKthunder2 4996]

28 minutes ago, bigshark88 said:

Many states in the US have a "lost and found" statute that makes it a crime to not report "abandoned property". Not sure whether it would apply under these facts but it'd be the starting place for my local prosecutors.

No idea what the law in Germany is though.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

Yeah like I said, if you melted it down they really couldn’t get you on the lost and found law, larceny, or any other crime laws that could bring you down like RICO or local STEP (California) like laws because there would be no way to prove it, unless it was some rare form of gold or gold tainted with a isotopic marker of some kind (basically just super rare shit you see in movies and tv shows) and even then it would have to be known to the authorities somehow and they would also have to know of your gold.  So unless they can somehow identify the gold after you melted it down you’re pretty safe.  They’d have to come up with a plausible reason to get you for money laundering or prove you been selling it without claiming your profits on your tax returns for tax fraud.

If I found it, my ass would start buying a couple thousand dollars worth of gold each year from different local buyers and then after 8-10 years or so I’d start selling my stuff back to them and claiming the profits on my taxes.  If the IRS ever came looking I’d have some receipts showing I was a collector and claim I’ve been doing this since I got out of school but obviously those receipts are long gone and many of the local stores I’ve purchased from aren’t around anymore.  Plus there aren’t any required records on gold purchases other than those over 10k so there’s not much they could do to you at that point and the money would be essentially cleaned and free to spend for retirement, your kid’s college, or Caribbean sail boat.

[bigshark88 388]

I completely agree. I scrolled up and quoted the wrong post actually.

One thing to consider: I represented owners of one of those gold buying shops years ago when the economy was down and they were everywhere. The second hand dealer gold shops are highly regulated by state statutes because they're basically perfect fence locations. Just something to think about. Not sure they'd be legally able to purchase gold you brought in the front door that just popped out of your egg sinker mold.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[TKthunder2 4996]

53 minutes ago, bigshark88 said:

I completely agree. I scrolled up and quoted the wrong post actually.

One thing to consider: I represented owners of one of those gold buying shops years ago when the economy was down and they were everywhere. The second hand dealer gold shops are highly regulated by state statutes because they're basically perfect fence locations. Just something to think about. Not sure they'd be legally able to purchase gold you brought in the front door that just popped out of your egg sinker mold.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

Interesting.  I’ve never claimed to be an expert and I’m sure smarter people than me have figured this out and have figured out the best way to stop this, but as far as I know there is no law against buying or selling melted precious metals.   Maybe it’s a state by state, county by county law or regulation; but from what I’ve heard/read, less experienced gold buyers don’t like buying melted or raw gold because they don’t trust their own ability to accurately value gold with their equipment.  So they generally don’t like to buy gold that doesn’t have its purity stamped on it.  Add in the possibility of having to deal with law enforcement if it’s determined that it was acquired by less than legal means and I can understand why some may decline to buy.  Still, I’d bet most would probably just make you a shitty offer because getting a good deal on gold that’s going to be melted anyways would outweigh any risk of having to deal with the cops.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

On 9/24/2018 at 2:21 PM, AUS-97HORN said:

He turned it in to the police and will get a $2,900 finder fee..... 

 

but man, thats about $96,700 worth of gold at todays gold price per gram. 

I get the idea of doing the right thing.... but I dont think there is any chance in hell of me turning in 2.5 kg worth of obviously hidden gold bars to the cops.

I realize the gold could have been stolen and since it was bars, it would be easy to identify if stolen, but I would have taken my chances and bought a damn smelter to melt the gold into smaller "homemade" nuggets that I would have sold off to gold buyers telling them I collect old broken gold jewelry and melt it myself.  Sell a small nugget of ~100 grams every 3-4 months to 3-4 diff gold buyers in my city.   Would take about 3 years to turn it all into tax-free cash.

 

https://www.thelocal.de/20180920/treasure

 

 

 

Zero chance I turn it in. Also zero chance that the serial numbers and logos are present when I sell them. I would have maybe waited a little while to see if the seller comes sniffing around. But is it even rightfully the sellers if he didnt put them there and didnt know they were in there anyway?

[bernorange 8362]

Pic in the OP doesn't really show depth very well, so you can't tell the thickness of the 3 bars, but it seems odd that one bar has smaller dimensions than the other two, yet is from the same Mint and is stamped with the same 1000 which I presume is indicative of the weight (1000 grams per bar).  Article claims the three bars totaled 2.5 kg.  Either the small bar is mis-stamped or the article misstated the total weight.  

[NorthLoop 14219]

13 hours ago, FondrenRoad said:

 I would have maybe waited a little while to see if the seller comes sniffing around. But is it even rightfully the sellers if he didnt put them there and didnt know they were in there anyway?

My main worry would that the seller would come around but I would never know it, because he'd put a bullet in the back of my head while I sleep. 

[Bernard 879]

7 hours ago, bernorange said:

 it seems odd that one bar has smaller dimensions than the other two, yet is from the same Mint and is stamped with the same 1000 which I presume is indicative of the weight (1000 grams per bar).  Article claims the three bars totaled 2.5 kg.  Either the small bar is mis-stamped or the article misstated the total weight.  

1000 may refer to purity, not mass/weight. Lots of bars are stamped 999.9 pure. Maybe they were into rounding back whenever these bars were made. 

Bernard

[bernorange 8362]

Purity is always expensed as a percentage.  99.999% or 99.9999%.  Never 100%.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21913]

Not true.  You will sometimes see bars labeled with a purity that way and the 1000 mark is definitely the purity.  Most of the time, a bar will also have the weight engraved on it, but it should always have a unit designation like Troy Oz or Gr.

[woohorn 1131]

I don't get the drama. I buy a used book for $1 that turns out to be a rare 1st edition. That bitch is mine.

I buy a dresser that has gold in it. The seller is a dumbass. The gold is mine.

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

We own acreage with a creek running through it, and I’ve successfully  panned gold ther. What harm is a little exaggeration when it comes to how much I’ve found?  One gram, one kilogram, whatever. I’ve got this covered.

I do remember a story from the 70s or 80s where an old jeweler collected the dust from on and around his work bench. He separated the gold dust and flecks from the regular dust, and by the time he retired, he had gold worth many thousands. /csb 

Edited September 28, 2018 by ImissWallyPryor

[bernorange 8362]

7 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

...

I do remember a story from the 70s or 80s where an old jeweler collected the dust from on and around his work bench. He separated the gold dust and flecks from the regular dust, and by the time he retired, he had gold worth many thousands. /csb 

https://nypost.com/2011/06/20/got-his-mined-in-the-gutter/

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

$819 in 6 days is enough to “make a living” in NYC if you’re homeless. 

[bmbmd 1027]

On 9/28/2018 at 12:42 AM, ImissWallyPryor said:

We own acreage with a creek running through it, and I’ve successfully  panned gold ther. What harm is a little exaggeration when it comes to how much I’ve found?  One gram, one kilogram, whatever. I’ve got this covered.

I do remember a story from the 70s or 80s where an old jeweler collected the dust from on and around his work bench. He separated the gold dust and flecks from the regular dust, and by the time he retired, he had gold worth many thousands. /csb 

Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood?

[HornsOverIthaca 2335]

[52-80 19206]

On 9/28/2018 at 5:01 PM, ImissWallyPryor said:

$819 in 6 days is enough to “make a living” in NYC if you’re homeless. 

yeah but it's tax free so in NYC its like grossing $3000 in 6 days

[ImissWallyPryor 9046]

Okay, make that a nice flop house.

 

 

Besides, I doubt he’s doing that 6 days a week for 52 weeks due to weather, illness, drunken stupors, etc. I’d be surprised if he even averages 5 days a week for 3 weeks a month.

Edited September 30, 2018 by ImissWallyPryor

[RDCanecutter 26458]

You are all ach so schneaky. If you find some gold, turn it in. If you lose some gold, go tell the police. They have it-- somebody else turned it in.

https://www.thelocal.de/20170728/man-forgets-kilo-of-gold-under-tree-in-berlin-as-he-locks-up-bike

[BlueGreySky 1021]

I can almost definitely say I am not even close to being that honest.

[Moby Ric 2058]

Those would be in the safe in my house till I could find a place to either melt them down or sell them off.  No way would I turn that in.

[immortal13 4059]

2 hours ago, Moby Ric said:

Those would be in the safe in my house till I could find a place to either melt them down or sell them off.  No way would I turn that in.

Same here. The government will end up keeping that gold

[Nolacycling 893]

[bad_teammate 13220]

On 9/24/2018 at 1:21 PM, AUS-97HORN said:

He turned it in to the police and will get a $2,900 finder fee..... 

 

 

New iPhones look like they suck

[Steamboat1874 4075]

2 hours ago, Nolacycling said:

Great fucking movie.

[immortal13 4059]

I'd rather use them for paperweights before turning them in to the cops for next to nothing.