The risks of treasure hunting

[Reznor_X]

We finally set out to find treasure on a real, historical place. We went to "Hacienda del muerto" (it would be something like “Ranch of the dead man”, it was called that way because someone found a dead body there) which is near to "Icamole" where a fierce fight took place in 1867. All this is in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

We arrived at 8:00PM, there was still sunlight. When we got there, we noticed that a fellow treasure hunter was already in the area, he arrived earlier and already got a handful of old bullets, and other small relics, he also found an interesting "12 cents" coin, which I cannot place its existence in our currency history (but talking to my wife’s grandfather he told me that those coins were called “Reales” and their value was 12.50 cents, because 8 “Reales” would be 1 “Peso”, however, he added that he never saw one of them, but remembers his father talking about that currency). His findings were a great motivation for us, so we turned on the GTI2500 an started detecting.

The details on the findings will be described in a different post (it’s nothing big, but hey! They’re my first real findings).

After 2 hours there, Serapio (The other treasure hunter who was there) decided to call it a day, and went to his truck to leave his detector and findings, but he came with us and stayed for another hour, we met the guy there, but he was excited to meet people who were in the same hobby. Near 11:00PM he finally took off. But the excitement of the findings kept us there... its was dark, almost pitch black! But the adrenaline was flowing! later on, a car arrived at the site, and parked far from where we were, they had music and considering the hour and the place, they were surely drinking.

We started to hear callings from these guys, but I told my partner to ignore them. Then they started the car again and I believed they were leaving, but no, I spotted a guy coming at us and also the car, he looked pretty pissed and he was telling his friends not to turn off the lights of the car, so they parked the car at 4 or 5 meters from where we were and kept the light unto us. The guy introduced himself with the line "Get the #$%& out of here" but he was clearly drunk, then, other 3 guys got off the car and came to us. So, there we were, my partner and I, and 4 drunken locals in an aggressive mood. I had 2 shovels, one on each hand, and just thinking how to swing them to get the most effective hit, but also thinking that they were 4... however, the guy came with verbal aggression and not physical aggression, which I took as a good sign, maybe things could be worked out talking, but still there was the fact that they were drunk, and dealing with drunks could be a risky business.

The first angry guy stayed with me, and another lesser angry guy kept talking with my partner, the other two seemed either scared or nervous, they had this smile, and they were also restraining their friends at some points of the arguing. The guy that stayed with me asked me what were we looking for, and I said old bullets and stuff like that. That kind of made him more angry, and he said that we were looking for money, and I said that there was no money there, but he insisted, then he wanted to part us with the metal detector and our stuff... the idea of the shovels flew by my head again, then he threaten us, he told us that they will kill us and burry us with our own shovels, at that point I convinced myself that he was bluffing, his eyes were so innocent (but the anger was sincere), however, It would not be wise to take a defensive position, contrary to that, I followed him, I started to look for his side, and finally hit the soft point, He was angry (and with a JUST reason) because other STUPID treasure hunters damaged the walls of the old church, and for their beliefs desecrated a holly place for them. That IMO is more than enough to act like he was acting, once I understood the man, I gave him enough lines to convince him that we respected holly places and the reason we were on the perimeter of the church was because we respected the place, and by no means we would go in other than for saying a prayer. Said that, the man's attitude changed dramatically, they simply asked us to go. And we flew!

What we learned from this experience?

1.-Never be late at night in a place in the middle of nowhere
2.-Never be is small numbers in places in the middle of nowhere
3.-Speechcraft is a good undervalued weapon, use it!

[RingDancer]

Sure sorry to hear you had an experience like that!!! Very glad to hear you came out of it alright!!!

Good reminder!!!!

[Reznor_X]

I'm glad too Pat!

Just wanted to add a picture of the place for a better reference...

[greg N.B.of P.A.]

Bravo Rez! You were very patient with the bullies. You came out in one piece. We can all learn a lesson from this incident. Always try to use logic before violence. Thank the good lord above and keep on digging! greg

[RingDancer]

Pic is just awesome!!! Nice finds also!!!

Pat