Husband accidently chucks out $50,000 worth of jewellery!

[LoveMyHats2]

My mum had a thing about hiding money and bits of (usually worthless) jewellery in very odd places. Under the carpet being one of them. Works reasonably well for notes, but not so well for watches!

I can imagine the watches would have had a "crunchy" sound if hidden under the carpets!

 

[Tomasso]

Am I the only one having Pulp Fiction flashbacks?

I love that scene. Classic Walken. But to answer your question, yes you are alone.

 

[Viola]

I knew a woman who said her grandmother succeeded in having her heirs NOT sell the family homestead by virtue of hiding fairly hefty amounts of money and assorted goodies everywhere. Gold coins in the drapes, to make them hang right. Bills behind the wainscoting in the front parlour. Things sewn into upholstery.

"Everyone's afraid to sell that house. Mama, my aunts and uncles. There are still, they are sure, some pieces of jewelry missing. I'm mean enough to hope Nana actually sold some of them just to keep the hunt going as long as possible."

As for me, I wouldn't hide a thing. That would be crazy, wouldn't it?

 

[bil_maxx]

Here in Canada, the representative of the Queen, is the Governor General. He lives in a government mansion in Ottawa and entertains dignitaries, like the Queen. Several years ago, some mastermind on the government's staff decided to sell at auction a bunch of miscellaneous boxes he found in the basement of the Governor General's residence. However, this Einstein did not open them, he just sold them. Turns out they were full of gold and silver historical treasures including property of the Queen of England worth a fortune. Instead of coming off as a hero for finding the boxes just sitting in the basement and "discovering" their contents, he is another example of Canadian government inefficiency in action. Also, as can be expected, a public appeal to the people that bought the boxes produced almost no results and their names were not kept!

 

[Tomasso]

bil_maxx, you really mangled that story. There were no sealed boxes auctioned off sight unseen. And records of the sales were kept and all the items were eventually recovered, albeit at great expense. Of course the end result does in no way mitigate the glaring ineptitude of the individuals involved.

 

[C-dot]

Yes, there were some errors there. And come on, the Canadian Gov't isn't that inept...

 

[bil_maxx]

bil_maxx, you really mangled that story. There were no sealed boxes auctioned off sight unseen. And records of the sales were kept and all the items were eventually recovered, albeit at great expense. Of course the end result does in no way mitigate the glaring ineptitude of the individuals involved.

Please do not personally attack before checking the facts. I was directly involved in the aftermath of this situation and the "recovery" which is by no means complete has been very difficult. The boxes were sold sight unseen and this has been the argument of the few people that have even acknowledged they bought them. Does it seem at all reasonable that they would have been sold if someone had opened the boxes first and seen the treasures inside?? Come on. The argument of the buyers is that they bought them fair and square on the surplus website.

The media was unsuccessfully kept out and there are many red faces involved now. Once SunMedia was alerted to the fiasco, the government stopped the remainder of the sale, but the most valuable things were sold. Irronically it was Rideau Hall staff that provided clues as to the contents not record keeping. Of particular interest are the 3 silver flower baskets belonging to the Queen. They were not catalogued at all and there was not even a record of Rideau Hall having them on loan from Buckingham Palace. This has been going on since 2009.

 

[Tomasso]

Please do not personally attack before checking the facts.

First of all, I did not launch a personal attack on you...and secondly, I've read dozens of accounts of the events that transpired and nowhere have the claims that you are making been reported. Maybe you will be kind enough to show where your claims have made it to press.

 

[C-dot]

Bill, I remember reading that there was a record of Rideau Hall's possession of these items - Buckingham Palace would never loan out royal belongings without one - and this is how they recovered them.

ETA: Yes, I found the canoe.ca article which spells it all out. Only the Queen's baskets were on loan, and they were documented. The rest were Crown Assets, and the reason they were sold was that they were not appraised properly (the Public Works department has since instituted policies to fix this problem). Every single item was recovered, except for a martini shaker from a cocktail set, which they allowed the buyer to keep.

 

[Tomasso]

The boxes were sold sight unseen......... Does it seem at all reasonable that they would have been sold if someone had opened the boxes first and seen the treasures inside?? Come on.

Look, everything at auction on the site is photographed, whether it be a filing cabinet or jewelry . Do you really believe that there were photos of sealed boxes up for auction and that people actually bid on them without knowing their contents? Come on....