M-Taliesin
Full Member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2009
- Messages
- 181
- Reaction score
- 3
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Aurora, Colorado
- Detector(s) used
- White's MXT 300/Sun Ray Probe, White's MXT Pro/Sun Ray Probe, White's Spectra V3i/Sun Ray Probe!
Howdy Folks!
I hunted yesterday, and found a whole lot of lost coins. On my way to another location, there was a fire that could be seen all over the Denver metroplex area, and I got a couple of photos. But what I found at one elementary school is the stuff of nightmares. It was better suited for a Stephen King novel than a school for young kids!
First, the positive stuff! During the day I found 172 coins. Best finds were three wheat pennies dated 1934, 1947 and 1957.
My take on the day was:
50 Quarters = $12.50
18 Nickels = $0.90
19 Dimes = $1.90
85 Pennies = $0.85
Total = $16.15
Coin Count = 172 Coins, not including wheats or foreign coins.
Along the way I found 5 Canadian coins, including a nickel dated 1867-1967. I'd never seen a centennial coin from Canada, so that was a treat in itself. I also found a $10 Peso Mexican coin.
On my way to another location, I saw smoke rising from a big fire to the north. I travelled over there to learn a brand new electrical sub station was blazing away. Flames roared 50 feet or better into the air, but the smoke could be seen all over the Colorado Front Range anywhere near Denver. That electrical substation was brand new, less than 2 weeks old. Guess they'll need to build another one because this one ain't gonna be much use to anybody!
Now for the truly horrific find of the day. You might want to skip this particular part of my tale as it is pretty gruesome.
It is the type of thing you never anticipated finding when you started detecting, and one I wish I hadn't made.
While detecting at a local elementary school tot lot, I was finding quite a few coins. I hadn't been to that particular location in several months, and from the look of things, nobody else had hunted it either. There were some 7 or 8 young Latino kids playing nearby, but they generally ignored me, and I was happy to be left alone to do my detecting.
After maybe 45 minutes to an hour, they approached me as a group. "Here we go!" I thought to myself. I figured they'd be starting in with all the usual questions about what I was doing, and could they help and could they have whatever I found. That sort of thing. Instead, one of them said "There's a dead animal over there. I think it might be a skunk or cow!"
Cow
Maybe I misheard the kid, because we don't get too many deceased cows in the metro area.
"Show me where it is." I told the girl who appeared to be speaking for the group.
We went over and she pointed to a mound of wood chips at the end of a slide. I could see black and white fur sticking out from between the chips. I bid the kids to stand away while I reached down with my probe to move chips aside. It appeared to be a cat. I hooked my coil under the body and flipped it out of the wood chips and sure enough, it was a cat. Or what was left of one. It appeared to be maybe 6 months to a year old cat that had been mutilated. The tail was missing and it had been decapitated. Looking at the pile of wood chips, there was no blood where it was originally laying. This means it was killed elsewhere, and some sick psycho had brought it to the school and buried it in wood chips directly at the end of the slide so some unsuspecting kid couldn't help but discover this horrific thing. Who would do such a thing? Who would not only so brutally abuse a small animal, but put the body where some kid couldn't help but stumble across it?
I told the group of kids to keep clear of the area while I called the police department to report an animal mutilation.
To my surprise, an officer arrived fairly quickly and I led him to where the animal was. The officer asked us to move away as he put on some rubber gloves and started pawing through the wood chips to see if any other evidence might exist. The officer called for a camera car to come take photos, and he removed the carcass of that poor cat.
For the rest of my hunt, I was certainly off my game. I didn't find any silver. I didn't find any gold. I also couldn't concentrate on detecting. It was like being on auto-pilot as I continued to find many coins, but just couldn't shake my rising anger at whoever did that awful thing.
Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to come across something like this. They don't warn you about that sort of discovery when you shop for your first detector. They don't warn you that you might find something truly horrible while on the trail of treasure. And you certainly don't expect it in a nice city school with really great kids.
It has been my most excellent pleasure to make many terrific finds. There have been some that were not so terrific, and some that end up in the trash can after my hunt. But this particular find is one I never dreamed of making, and hope not to ever make another like it.
Blessings,
M-Taliesin
I hunted yesterday, and found a whole lot of lost coins. On my way to another location, there was a fire that could be seen all over the Denver metroplex area, and I got a couple of photos. But what I found at one elementary school is the stuff of nightmares. It was better suited for a Stephen King novel than a school for young kids!
First, the positive stuff! During the day I found 172 coins. Best finds were three wheat pennies dated 1934, 1947 and 1957.
My take on the day was:
50 Quarters = $12.50
18 Nickels = $0.90
19 Dimes = $1.90
85 Pennies = $0.85
Total = $16.15
Coin Count = 172 Coins, not including wheats or foreign coins.
Along the way I found 5 Canadian coins, including a nickel dated 1867-1967. I'd never seen a centennial coin from Canada, so that was a treat in itself. I also found a $10 Peso Mexican coin.
On my way to another location, I saw smoke rising from a big fire to the north. I travelled over there to learn a brand new electrical sub station was blazing away. Flames roared 50 feet or better into the air, but the smoke could be seen all over the Colorado Front Range anywhere near Denver. That electrical substation was brand new, less than 2 weeks old. Guess they'll need to build another one because this one ain't gonna be much use to anybody!
Now for the truly horrific find of the day. You might want to skip this particular part of my tale as it is pretty gruesome.
It is the type of thing you never anticipated finding when you started detecting, and one I wish I hadn't made.
While detecting at a local elementary school tot lot, I was finding quite a few coins. I hadn't been to that particular location in several months, and from the look of things, nobody else had hunted it either. There were some 7 or 8 young Latino kids playing nearby, but they generally ignored me, and I was happy to be left alone to do my detecting.
After maybe 45 minutes to an hour, they approached me as a group. "Here we go!" I thought to myself. I figured they'd be starting in with all the usual questions about what I was doing, and could they help and could they have whatever I found. That sort of thing. Instead, one of them said "There's a dead animal over there. I think it might be a skunk or cow!"
Cow
Maybe I misheard the kid, because we don't get too many deceased cows in the metro area. "Show me where it is." I told the girl who appeared to be speaking for the group.
We went over and she pointed to a mound of wood chips at the end of a slide. I could see black and white fur sticking out from between the chips. I bid the kids to stand away while I reached down with my probe to move chips aside. It appeared to be a cat. I hooked my coil under the body and flipped it out of the wood chips and sure enough, it was a cat. Or what was left of one. It appeared to be maybe 6 months to a year old cat that had been mutilated. The tail was missing and it had been decapitated. Looking at the pile of wood chips, there was no blood where it was originally laying. This means it was killed elsewhere, and some sick psycho had brought it to the school and buried it in wood chips directly at the end of the slide so some unsuspecting kid couldn't help but discover this horrific thing. Who would do such a thing? Who would not only so brutally abuse a small animal, but put the body where some kid couldn't help but stumble across it?
I told the group of kids to keep clear of the area while I called the police department to report an animal mutilation.
To my surprise, an officer arrived fairly quickly and I led him to where the animal was. The officer asked us to move away as he put on some rubber gloves and started pawing through the wood chips to see if any other evidence might exist. The officer called for a camera car to come take photos, and he removed the carcass of that poor cat.
For the rest of my hunt, I was certainly off my game. I didn't find any silver. I didn't find any gold. I also couldn't concentrate on detecting. It was like being on auto-pilot as I continued to find many coins, but just couldn't shake my rising anger at whoever did that awful thing.
Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to come across something like this. They don't warn you about that sort of discovery when you shop for your first detector. They don't warn you that you might find something truly horrible while on the trail of treasure. And you certainly don't expect it in a nice city school with really great kids.
It has been my most excellent pleasure to make many terrific finds. There have been some that were not so terrific, and some that end up in the trash can after my hunt. But this particular find is one I never dreamed of making, and hope not to ever make another like it.
Blessings,
M-Taliesin
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awesome. You did really good. Nice treasure you have there.
and that's some fire!
You did the right thing by contacting the police, I just hope they do the right thing and increase security for awhile. 
