Belgian police are calling on treasure hunters to steer clear of a building site where construction workers this week stumbled on a stash of gold reportedly worth more than $10 million. The surprise haul came to light on Tuesday during renovation work on a building in the east Flemish town of Dendermonde.
Police said workers alerted them after discovering “a large quantity of gold” and subsequently published photographs of around 50 gold bars and piles of gold coins on their Facebook page. Belgian news outlets reported that the 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.
One worker interviewed by the Belgian news outlet VRT said the crew’s “first reaction was actually disbelief, amazement.” The man, identified only as Kobe, explained, “We stumbled across it while carrying out groundwork to lay a pipe for the sewerage system. We certainly hadn’t expected to find gold.” Police confirmed the gold was “inventoried and secured as quickly as possible in a high-security vault belonging to the federal government services.”
Following the discovery, the police department changed its profile picture to a gold coin and issued a warning on social media. “Apparently, several treasure hunters would like to pay another visit to the site,” the post read. “A golden piece of advice: it is truly pointless,” they added, cautioning the curious to stay away from the fenced-off construction site. While it remains unclear who the legal owner of the trove is or if anyone will ultimately keep it, the police concluded their statement by noting, “Let us hope that this treasure ends up in the right hands.”