Tanks a bullion! Man finds gold bars buried in military vehicle

Fox News ^ | 9 Apr 2017

[mandaladon]

A tank fanatic got a new model in a £30,000 [$37,000] trade-in — and found more than £2million of gold bullion hidden in the fuel tank.

Nick Mead, 55, discovered the five gold bars in the Russian T54/69 while restoring it to add to his collection of 150 military vehicles.

He and mechanic Todd Chamberlain were filming themselves prising open the diesel tank in case they found munitions and needed to show it to bomb disposal crews.

Instead, they pulled out the bars, weighing up to 12 pounds — 5kg — apiece.

Todd, 50, said a quick calculation suggested they were worth in excess of £2million [$2.5 million].

He added: “We didn’t know what to do. You can’t exactly take five gold bullion bars down to Cash Converters without questions being asked, so we called the police.”

Nick runs Tanks-a-Lot, giving petrolheads the chance to drive any of his tanks on his farm in Helmdon, Northants.

[kiryandil]

Become a “gold prospecting” enthusiast.

[Gay State Conservative]

Geez...you have no imagination at all save to be a sheep.

Imagination? I can imagine trying to do many things with that gold...but it must be noted that I know nothing about precious metals....or the world of high finance...or the world of government regulation/taxation.

Melt it down? OK,but then how do you get anything near current price for it from anyone other than a shady character.Take the bricks to one of London's/New York's/Tokyo's/Hong Kong's major banks? Yah,OK.But they'd be on the phone to INTERPOL and the tax authorities in a heartbeat.

Let's hear what *your* imagination comes up with!

[kiryandil]

Gold is priced in troy ounces.

[scripter]

Great Movie. Kelly’s Hero’s.

Thanks for the name of the movie! I saw it as a kid and couldn't remember the name. My first thought was the Dirty Dozen but that's another movie from the same time period (if I remember correctly).

[kiryandil]

14.58 troy ounces.

[kiryandil]

Yes, I am. This is Great Britain, not Venezuela.

Aren't you the optimist? 😀

[CurlyDave]

Not difficult to figure out how the gold got in there.The only thing that *is* puzzling is why it wasn’t removed?

That isn't hard either.

Soldiers -- Wartime -- Find gold -- Loot gold -- Hide gold -- Soldiers get killed/wounded/captured/or even desert -- Gold stays hidden.

[rockrr]

“I tink maybe you half somtink belong to me...”

[Gay State Conservative]

These guys who found it are going to loose a ton of money and the lawyers will wind up with most of it.

It's distinctly possible that you're correct.But,OTOH,trying to circumvent established laws is likely to put you in contact with shady characters...characters who might be willing to *kill* for millions.

[mad_as_he$$]

Even in the UK he will be lucky to keep half. If a museum wants it then a .gov committee decides how much it is worth.

[Gay State Conservative]

Soldiers -- Wartime -- Find gold -- Loot gold -- Hide gold -- Soldiers get killed/wounded/captured/or even desert -- Gold stays hidden.

Yah,that sounds like a plausible scenario.

[DrDude]

Leftover tank from Kelly’s Heros. Memorializing Don Rickles passing this week.

[Rebelbase]

Video of the gold being discovered in the gas tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km5k60PR1dU&t=300s

[Born to Conserve]

Standard operating procedure in the USA is to declare it “drug money”, and confiscate it, with no legal recourse.

[kiryandil]

Now the lawyers of various nations are going to fight over who owns the gold. These guys who found it are going to loose a ton of money and the lawyers will wind up with most of it. Check out what happened to the Spanish Galion treasure hunters.

The gold wasn't going anywhere.

I would have done a LOT of research over a long period of time to see what the best course of action was.

These men are children. "oooooh - lookit what we found!"

@ NRx - I don't advocate tax evasion - but these aren't your grandfather's government bureaucrats.

My first reaction as a venal .gov type would be to accuse them of smuggling it into the country.

Then, it's the government's - period. Remember that as grasping as our Revenue Service is, the Brits have one that's even more grasping.

[archy]

Gold is measured in troy ounces, not avoirdupois, so your calculation is wrong. However, 25 kg is a little over 800 troy ounces, thus you are right that the value of the gold is much closer to $1 million than $2 million.

Hmmmmm. About 65 million Reichmarks?

[NativeSon]

May as well add my 2 cents... I would've kept the gold and any talk about it, to myself. That may have not been a good option because the owner was not alone at the time of discovery.

Back to "keep it & your trap shut about it"; If/when I would need to tap into that reserve, I'd take a portion, recast or form it into something "negotiable" and pay the tax associated with the transaction.

I am not a metallurgist or precious metals expert but I know enough to work things out as far a likely composition. But it's all cloud talk as I am very unlikely to run into such a dilemma (rainbows & leprechauns notwithstanding) or buy tanks as a hobby. This fellow could have gained much more (pr, publicity, etc) than the value of the gold itself ... or he had the gold previously and needed a way to "launder it"

[archy]

Yes, I am. This is Great Britain, not Venezuela.

And the capital is Londonistan.

[BenLurkin]

Excellent

[painter]

and hope that nobody claims it within a year (or whatever the limit is).

Around here it's 90 days.