Posted on 08/16/2006 6:38:07 PM PDT by wjersey
AOL is preparing to dig for buried gold and platinum on property in Massachusetts owned by the parents of a man it sued for sending millions of unwanted spam e-mails to its customers.
AOL said Tuesday it intends to search for gold and platinum bars the company believes are hidden near the home of Davis Wolfgang Hawke's parents on two acres in Medfield, Mass. The family said it will fight in court to oppose AOL's plans.
AOL won a $12.8 million judgment last year in U.S. District Court in Virginia against Hawke but has been unable to contact Hawke to collect any of the money he was ordered to pay. AOL accused Hawke of violating federal and state anti-spam laws by sending unwanted e-mails to its subscribers and won its case in a default judgment against Hawke, who didn't show up in court.
"I don't care if they dig up the entire yard. They're just going to make fools of themselves," said Peggy Greenbaum, Hawke's mother. "There's absolutely no reason for them to think that Davis Hawke would be stupid enough to bury gold on our property. My son is long gone."
At the height of Hawke's Internet activities, experts believe, Hawke and his business partners earned more than $600,000 each month _ much of it cash _ by sending unwanted sales pitches over the Internet for loans, pornography, jewelry and prescription drugs.
"They were millionaires, if only briefly," said Brian McWilliams, a journalist who interviewed Hawke and wrote extensively about him in "Spam Kings," a 2004 book about e-mail spammers. McWilliams said Hawke lived a nomadic life as an adult, eschewed luxuries and described burying his valuables.
"Hawke lived like a pauper really," McWilliams said. "He drove a beater of a used car, an old cop car. He never owned a house or anything."
Hawke's mother said her husband and father intend to challenge AOL's plans to dig on their property and search their two-story, 3,000- square-foot home in a wooded residential area of Medfield, a small town about 20 miles southwest of Boston. She said AOL's lawyer notified the family that the company intends to use bulldozers and geological teams to hunt for gold and platinum on their property.
Greenbaum said she has not talked with her son in more than a year and complained about the embarrassment and humiliation he brought to the family.
Greenbaum said the family believes Hawke buried gold in the White Mountains 130 miles north of Boston. She said he once confided to her that he bought gold _ rather than expensive homes or cars _ because it would be more difficult to seize in lawsuits.
"We don't know where is he," she said. "We certainly wouldn't allow him to put any gold on our property."
AOL defended its efforts.
The dig isn't something out of "Treasure Island," AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. "This is a court-directed, judge-approved legal process that is simply aimed at responsibly recovering hidden assets."
To win a judge's permission for the search, AOL submitted receipts reflecting large purchases by Hawke of gold and platinum bars, Graham said. The company indicated it believes Hawke buried the loot on his parents' property using a shovel.
AOL said it will try to accommodate Hawke's parents by not being too obtrusive.
A former U.S. prosecutor described AOL's efforts as highly unusual. Marc Zwillinger said his law firm has seized plasma televisions, jet skis and other gadgets in unrelated spam and piracy lawsuits.
"But I've never had a case digging up gold bars and bullion," Zwillinger said. "That's definitely unique."
Ironic, since finding useful content on AOhell is very much like hunting for buried treasure.
Has anybody figured a way to work the phrase "You've got mail" into all of this?
Saw this on a Boston newscast last night.AOL had better understand that if they find anything the Massachusetts Dept of Revenue will claim part of it...perhaps even a big part.
What a great comedy movie script! Somebody will make some buck$ on this theme and/or variations thereof.
Best I can do:
Shovel. Gelt. Pail.
Sorry.
And of course parents always know what kids hide in the house or on the property.
AOL digging around for hidden treasure, is the IT team in charge?
I'm laughing my ass off.
Hi, my name is Hilltop, I'm a recovering AOL user.
I've been AOL free for ten years, one day at a time.
I wonder if they cancelled his account yet.
AOL probably wants to dig up these gold and platinum bars to help pay for the lawsuits coming their way for releasing AOL members' search info.
sounds like a perfect Geraldo special..
aol sucks so badly...this might wind up as their only future source of revenues...maybe they can dig the hole deep enough to bury all the free cd's they send out...so desperately trying to hood wink someone/anyone into signing up for their crappy service!
Yeah, right.
Metal detectors and ground penetrating radar is the way to go. Digging the place up is dumb.
I should add, why isn't the IRS after him?
I always found that the best place to hide something was in plain view. People look for hidden stuff and ignore what is right in front of them.
No sympathy at all with spammers, but IMO digging up his folks' back yard is moronic. REALLY moronic. Medfield is a very nice town just down the road a bit from the Hammer residence, and is populated by the law-abiding. There's no buried loot there. AOL is just gonna make fools of themselves and generate a lot of bad publicity - not that those #&%#&#s care about bad publicity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.