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After This Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard, The Police Came Knocking

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After Matthew Emanuel, a man from Staten Island, found buried treasure in his backyard the police came knocking just days later! Read on to see why…

Time For Some Answers

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

Of course, safety was the most crucial thing to Emanuel and Bamboo Bob. First, they instructed the workers to step back and also put some wood down, to ensure they did not damage the grass. With everything ready, they brought the construction digger’s claw down on the safe. With a cacophony of ripping metal, the crew managed to pry the safe open.

When Emanuel looked into the open safe, he felt stunned through to his core. He found it impossible that such a massive treasure had remained hidden in his backyard for nearly half a century…

A Seemingly Normal Life

When you move into a wonderful new home, it’s hard to take it all in. So, for the first few years that Matthew Emanuel lived with his beautiful family in the neighborhood of Todt Hill, Staten Island, he was always finding new things around his house.

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

Matthew Emanuel/Twitter

Over the years, Emanuel, his wife Maria, and their son Alex, decorated and explored their wonderful house. They loved their home, as well as their peaceful life in suburbia. However, for nearly five years, something remained hidden in the corner of their backyard, untouched. Soon, this little secret would test the Emanuel family’s resolve and character.

Something In The Shadows

When Matthew Emanuel and his family moved into their home, they didn’t notice anything peculiar about their backyard. It had an Asian flare with bamboo and water features. All the while, the family never knew that something hid amidst the bamboo that would turn their lives upside down! If Emanuel had known, he would have done something about it sooner!

Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard

CBS New York

Surprisingly, the treasure was only half-buried! It just waited, tucked away in the corner of the background, waiting for someone to find it. And the hidden object contained much more than treasure. It held something the would end an older woman’s heartbreak…

An Electrical Box?

Anyone who finds a hidden box in their backyard probably immediately thinks they’ve hit the jackpot, with images of pirate treasure filling their head. However, not Emanuel! At first, “[he] just thought it was some kind of electrical box,” he later said. While Emanuel did not know what the electrical box could possibly control, there was an excellent reason he never approached it…

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

First of all, the years had caused the box to become rusted. But, more importantly, poison ivy had covered the container. As a result, gardeners had even dropped mulch onto of the rusty box, without thinking twice about it! Thankfully, soon enough, something would bring the strange object to Emanuel’s attention.

Winter Has Come

It probably comes as no surprise, but New York became quite cold in the winter of 2018. In fact, it was one of the harshest on record! The city was filled with snow and storms, one of which caused a tree in Emanuel’s backyard to fall down. The falling tree not only knocked over a fence, but also revealed the box to Emanuel and his family!

Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard

CBS New York

After the storm cleared, Emanuel walked his property to survey the damage caused by the falling tree. That’s when he saw a large, rusty object, one half-submerged in the ground. Instantly, Emanuel knew that he had been wrong: this was no electrical box. His curiosity piqued, the man decided to start investigating.

Waiting In Plain Sight

While Emanuel and his family wanted to find out more about the rusted box, they could not. The reason? Well, they had something much more significant to worry about: the winter storms continued! And, as the storms continued, they did even more severe damage to their backyard. Later, in hindsight, the Emanuels wish they had done something about the box sooner – but they had no idea what it contained inside!

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

Of course, if the Emanuel family and his family knew that the valuables inside the box would solve a decades-long mystery, they would have opened it soon. Still, soon enough, Matthew Emanuel would discover why someone hid the box so well…

Time For A New Backyard

Because of the incredible damages that the harsh 2018 winter caused, Matthew Emanuel and his family had to completely re-do their backyard. With just one quick look around, Emanuel knew he would need some extra help with the renovation.

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

So, Emanuel and his wife, Maria, started to look for an expert landscaper. Most importantly, they needed someone who knew a lot about bamboo, as it was the only plant that managed to survive the storm. As such, Emanuel and his wife had decided to plant more of it! At the time, they had no idea that their decision would force them to deal with the rusted box in the corner of their garden!

Meet Bamboo Bob

Eventually, Emanuel found a horticulturist who specializes in bamboo. In fact, the landscaper, Robert Foley, actually goes by the nickname “Bamboo Bob.” That’s right! Believe it or not, he actually insists that everyone calls him Bamboo Bob instead of Mr. Foley or Robert, even interviewers! Still, despite these oddities – or maybe because of them – Emanuel hired Bamboo Bob.

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

Robert Thomas Foley/YouTube

Quite the experienced landscaper, Bamboo Bob thought he had seen everything when it came to landscape features. However, in the spring of 2019, when he arrived at the Emanuels’ property, Bamboo Bob admitted he felt stumped. He had never seen anything like the strange rusted box in the backyard!

Time To Get To Work

As Bamboo Bob surveyed the backyard, he noticed the rusty box. Given its size, about 2 feet wide and 1.5 feet deep, Bob knew that it could not possibly be an electrical box. However, he had no idea what it actually was. “You never know what’s under the ground,” Bob explained. “Every job, I’ve got to know what’s going on.”

Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard

CBS New York

So, Bamboo Bob asked Emanuel about the box. “He said, ‘I don’t know,'” Bob remembered later. “I said, ‘How long have you lived here?'” Well, the rusty box looked a lot older than the four years the Emanuels had been living there. Of course, Bob could not resist the desire to know what hid inside the box!

Be Careful!

While Bamboo Bob felt sure the box had nothing electrical inside it, he needed to remain careful. After all, he had seen many strange situations over the years! So, once his team arrived, Bob and his crew carefully started uncovering the box. They went slowly, just on the off-chance that it had been connected to the electrical grid.

Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard

CBS New York

While it almost took an entire day, Bamboo Bob and his team worked to uncover the rusty box. Once free, the workers turned the box on its back, revealing a dial. That’s right! The rusted box turned out to be a locked safe, rusted from decades of being hidden outside. Now, it had finally been revealed to the world! But Bob and Emanuel could never have predicted the secrets it held inside…

An Interesting Box

Immediately, Bamboo Bob got Matthew Emanuel and showed him the rusted safe. The homeowner could not believe his eyes. It was like something out of an adventure movie! “I had seen it the whole time,” Emanuel said. “I have been throwing mulch on it!” He never thought the box could be anything important, let alone valuable to someone else – but he could not have been more wrong!

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

New York Times

Of course, now, Emanuel, Bob, and his team had an even bigger mystery to solve: what lie in the locked safe? And, even more importantly, who did the lockbox belong to?

What Might It Be?

While the safe was only about two-feet wide and one-and-a-half feet high, it was incredibly heavy. In fact, it weighed a whopping 100 pounds, by the workers’ estimates. The weight would undoubtedly make it harder to open. However, Emanuel and Bamboo Bob need to discover the contents of the rusted box!

Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard

CBS New York

At first, Emanuel and Bob rocked the safe back and forth, trying to hear if any coins jingled inside. They heard nothing. Still, that certainly did not mean that the safe was empty! All Emanuel and Bob needed to do was figure out a way to break the safe open. That’s when their eyes focused on the construction digger Bob and his team had brought – that would be perfect for cracking the safe open!

Time For Some Answers

Of course, safety was the most crucial thing to Emanuel and Bamboo Bob. First, they instructed the workers to step back and also put some wood down, to ensure they did not damage the grass. With everything ready, they brought the construction digger’s claw down on the safe. With a cacophony of ripping metal, the crew managed to pry the safe open.

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

When Emanuel looked into the open safe, he felt stunned through to his core. He found it impossible that such a massive treasure had remained hidden in his backyard for nearly half a century…

Real-Life Buried Treasure

Upon opening the safe, Emanuel, Bamboo Bob, and the crew saw a field of green. They could hardly believe their eyes! “The first thing we saw was stacks of hundreds, about 3 inches thick, wet and stuck together,” Bamboo Bob later said.

Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard

CBS New York

However, that was not all the safe contained! It also had many sealed Ziploc bags filled with loose gold, diamond earrings and rings, and other jewelry. Emanuel simply could not believe his luck! “It is like a childhood dream that you find treasure,” he said of the find. But all good things must come to an end. Almost immediately, Emanuel noticed something wrong with his buried treasure…

Time Breaks Down All

The more that Matthew Emanuel looked at his buried treasure, the less joyous he felt. You see, the safe was not a waterproof safe. So, after sitting through many snowy winters and rainy springs in the backyard, much of the treasure had nearly disintegrated over time!

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

Even worse, the giant wads of $100 bills had stuck together when wet and then dried together during the summer. Emanuel realized that if he even tried to pull one bill from the stack, they all might rip. Still, the homeowner has since said that he remained excited. After all, this treasure safe contained much more than $100 bills. However, through it all, a question was gnawing at the back of his mind: how did the safe end up in his backyard?

Challenging Work

Over the next few weeks, Matthew Emanuel spent most of his free time carefully peeling apart wet dollar bills and setting them aside to dry. While the process took him hours upon hours, he wanted to do whatever he could to keep the newly-discovered treasure safe. And the more he worked, the more Emanuel realized that he could save many of the bills!

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

Still, for every step that Emanuel took forward, it felt like he took two steps back. For every bill he saved, he would lose two or three, sometimes even more. Meanwhile, he was no closer to finding out who the safe belonged to!

Anything Left?

It took him more than three weeks, but eventually, Emanuel finished his work. In the end, by his calculations, the homeowner lost roughly $5,000 worth of $100 bills due to exposure and damage.

Man Found A Safe Buried In His Backyard

CBS New York

But it was not all bad news. After all, Emanuel thought he had managed to save more than a dozen of the bills during his challenging work. That’s enough for a couple of lovely nights out or to bay a bill or two! But, when he started to count the bills, Emanuel realized he had lost count: he had preserved many more Benjamins than he initially thought…

Over $15,000!

After figuring out how much he lost, Emanuel started counting his slightly faded, newly dried bills. After calculating his gains the first time, he needed to count again. Emanuel could not believe it: he had saved over $16,000! Finally, Emanuel knew how much he had earned from the safe, in cash. And it was a lot more than he had ever dreamed of earning from an old rusty box!

Lockbox Buried Treasure Staten Island Matthew Emanuel

CBS New York

Furthermore, this only accounted for the cash in the safe. He still needed to count the jewelry and the gold. However, soon, Emanuel began to think this might be too good to be true. Perhaps this safe still belonged to someone…

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