“At first I thought they were €1 coins,” says Kobe, the 18-year-old student who found a gold hoard while working on a building site in Dendermonde. The haul is thought to be worth around €9 million. It’s not yet clear who is entitled to keep the money.
What began as a normal working day turned out to be something completely different for Kobe and his colleagues. They were set to demolish a building on Van Langenhovestraat in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde on Tuesday when they discovered a trove of gold coins and ingots bricked into a wall in the cellar.
“Our first reaction was actually disbelief, amazement. We certainly hadn’t expected to find gold,” Kobe said. “We stumbled across it while carrying out groundworks to lay a pipe for the sewerage system.”
Then we saw a gold nugget lying there. That’s when we realised it was something bigger
When they removed a section of the foundations, they saw something unexpected. “At first, I thought they were €1 coins. But then we also saw a gold nugget lying there. That’s when we realised it was something bigger.”
Site manager Mario couldn’t believe his eyes. “They shouted: ‘We’ve found gold!’ I went to have a look and picked up the gold,” he says. “We kept digging up more coins and bars. Only then did it really sink in what we’d found. It was a strange feeling.”
Mario rang his manager, who told him to notify the building owner and the police. Did the workers consider keeping the gold for themselves? “There are so many coins and bars; it would be almost impossible,” he says. “Besides, that would be theft.”
“That’s what I thought too,” says Kobe. “Of course, we did briefly consider keeping it. But it’s simply too much money. If it were a few thousand euros, it might be feasible. But €9 million – you simply can’t keep that hidden.”
After 33 years in the construction industry, this is the first time I’ve experienced anything like this
He hopes there might be a finder’s fee for him and his colleagues. Any fee, and the question of who the money belongs to, are still to be determined. The gold is with the police at a secure location and the East Flanders public prosecutor is conducting an investigation to determine how it ended up at the site. “For all we know, this discovery is the result of some kind of fraudulent activity and the gold has been hidden there,” a spokesperson for the building owner said.
“After 33 years in the construction industry, this is the first time I’ve experienced anything like this,” says site manager Mario. “I don’t think it will ever happen again.”