Things are looking really bad for the FBI. Two more witnesses came forward to testify that they saw some shady things going on in the pre-dawn hours. Things which confirm agents from the bureau dug up a cache of Civil War gold at night and hauled it away. Then, the feds claimed they didn’t find anything.
FBI plundered the gold
The FBI has long been fighting accusations that they stole a stash of gold in the middle of the night and two fresh witnesses blow their denial away completely. Treasure hunters were convinced they had located a lost 1863 gold shipment.
They struck a deal with the bureau where they would get a finder’s fee based on a percentage of the haul. Since nothing from nothing leaves nothing, they got stiffed. They’ve been insisting all along they were robbed but until now it’s been their word against the government.
By a miracle of coincidence, at the same time crews came in to excavate the gold, “Eric McCarthy and his client, Don Reichel, woke before sunrise to scour the forest for so-called brown gold, a rack of freshly shed antlers to add to Reichel’s collection.”
Affidavit: FBI feared Pennsylvania would seize fabled gold – “I have probable cause to believe that a significant cache of gold is secreted in the underground cave” in Dent’s Run, holding “one or more tons” belonging to the U.S. government #silver pic.twitter.com/71XKz139o8
— buy_silver (@buy_silver) June 25, 2021
Elk really love that particular part of the Pennsylvania forest. The hikers had no idea that the FBI was prospecting just over the hill.
The dispute has been raging a full five years now and the feds have been fighting tooth and nail to hide crucial documents and records of the Dent’s Run dig. Even a federal judge overseeing the case noted at one point, “the FBI may have found the gold — or maybe not.”
All along, the treasure finders have claimed that armored trucks were spotted in the woods and there were signs of a crew coming in at night before the big excavation was supposed to start. The antler hunters confirm that story.
Fact, science and secrecy
As the Washington Post writes, “two witnesses have come forward to share with The Associated Press what they heard and saw in the woods, raising questions about the FBI’s timeline and adding plot twists to a saga that blends elements of legend, fact and science — and a heavy dose of government secrecy.”
The FBI swears up and down that they didn’t find a trace of gold in 2018.
The remote wooded valley called Dent’s Run lies about 110 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. After professional treasure hunter Dennis Parada zeroed in on the location, the FBI did technical “scans” which “showed the likelihood of a buried metal mass equaling hundreds of millions of dollars in gold.” It didn’t just disappear.
New eyewitness accounts are raising questions about the FBI's secretive 2018 dig for a legendary cache of Civil War-era gold. https://t.co/SopfGnE0xT
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 7, 2023
“McCarthy and Reichel awoke at 4 a.m. and were on the mountain sometime between 5 and 5:30, splitting up to increase their odds of finding an elk shed.”
According to the antler hunting guide, he and his friend heard “the unexpected clang of heavy equipment” as they worked their way up the mountain in “near-darkness.” That’s not all. “Cresting the ridge, McCarthy spotted the FBI operation on the opposite slope, about 400 yards away. He saw lights powered by a generator. A parked excavator. A smaller piece of equipment moving up and down the hill. A brown-black gash in the earth. People huddling under a canopy.”
Later, while stopping for a meal break, “McCarthy and Reichel watched a trio of armored trucks rumble past.” It was clear to both that “one of the vehicles rode low, as if it was carrying a full load.” McCarthy is convinced “they took something out of Dents Run. Something heavy.” Reichel confirms the account. He separately described the “early-morning clatter and seeing a loaded truck on March 14, 2018.” That matches previous testimony “from residents who told the AP of hearing a backhoe and jackhammer overnight and seeing a convoy that included armored trucks.“
