We’ve heard of people finding rare baseball cards hidden inside photo albums, a $3 piece of pottery at a tag sale that’s worth $.2. million, or otherwise happening upon other valuable artifacts when buying other items at rummage and garage sales. But the dream of finding hidden treasure came true in a very literal way for one surprised estate sale buyer.

A Texas antiques and collectibles buyer bought a dresser for less than $100 over the weekend at an estate sale in Missouri City, and noticed something odd and jangly, like a “metallic waterfall,” as he was loading it onto the truck to take it home.

“He asked for help loading it,” a member of the estate sale team told ABC News. “As soon as we laid it down, it started making all this racket on the inside.”

“And we opened it up and three of us looked in and it was like the Hardy Boys. Holy smokes, jackpot!” he told KHQ.com.

Holy smokes, jackpot indeed: A hidden drawer in the chest contained jewelry, diamonds, emeralds, gold and silver coins, paper money, stamps, Civil War medals, and lots of family valuables.

“When you look at the front of it, it looks like it has three obvious drawers with molding on the base, but the bottom has a secret drawer that opens up,” the buyer explained.

He won’t be able to hoard his treasure however — the estate sale company contacted the original owners, who were clueless as to the dresser’s contents. They were excited, to say the least.

In any case, the buyer says he’s just fine giving the treasure back.

“I bought the chest drawers. I didn’t buy those things,” he told ABC. “If I kept them, I would never feel right about it. There would be a cloud over the whole thing. It’s a feeling more than anything else.”

MAN FINDS TREASURE IN DRESSER BOUGHT AT TEXAS ESTATE SALE [ABC News]
Man finds hidden treasure in estate sale dresser [KHQ.com]

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