Construction workers in Belgium stumbled upon a stash of gold believed to be worth more than $10 million during renovation work on a building.
Police said they were “immediately” contacted by the workers after they discovered “a large quantity of gold” while working on a building in the east Flemish town of Dendermonde. The local police department posted a picture on its Facebook page of around 50 gold bars and piles of gold coins.
Belgian news outlets reported that bars and coins worth an estimated nine million euros ($10.4 million) were found bricked into the cellar walls during the renovation of a house belonging to a local charity, CAW East-Flanders.
Lokale Politie Dendermonde/Facebook
One worker interviewed by Belgian news outlet VRT said the crew’s “first reaction was actually disbelief, amazement.”
“We stumbled across it while carrying out groundwork to lay a pipe for the sewerage system,” said the man identified only as Kobe. “We certainly hadn’t expected to find gold.”
Police said the gold was “inventoried and secured as quickly as possible in a high-security vault belonging to the federal government services.”
Lokale Politie Dendermonde/Facebook
“Apparently, several treasure hunters would like to pay another visit to the site,” read a Facebook post by the police department, which changed its profile picture to a gold coin in light of the find.
“A golden piece of advice: it is truly pointless,” they said, cautioning the curious to stay away from the fenced-off construction site.
It was not clear who was considered the legal owner of the trove — and if anyone would get to keep it.
“Let us hope that this treasure ends up in the right hands,” said the police post.