Tennessee family discovers buried treasure in grandparents’ farmhouse
Redditor evilenglish was helping his family clear out his grandparents' old farmhouse in Tennessee last week when he discovered a block of concrete on the floor of a closet under a staircase.
"This was very out of place since all of the downstairs flooring is hardwood," he wrote. "I pushed the carpet back further and saw a round cap with a circle indentation on it. I pulled off the cap and...A Secret Safe!"
Evilenglish and his family were preparing the farmhouse for sale following the death of his father, who had inherited the home from his parents.
He noted that his grandparents were collectors: his grandfather collected firearms, his grandmother collected coins and other antiques.
Upon discovering the safe, evilenglish called a locksmith — and started updating his fellow redditors on the unfolding story, including why he had reason to believe things of value were stashed inside:
"I should also say that early last year my brother in law and I was moving some of the furniture. He went to move one of the coffee tables and when he went to pick it up, the table top came off of the base," he wrote.
"Underneath the table top of the coffee table was a hidden, standalone safe. It was pretty heavy, but we were able to load it in the truck. He took it to work and was able to cut it open. Inside of it were several pistols (.22s, a 357, and a few others) there were also about 300 single one dollar bills. We found out that there were 'Barr Notes' and supposedly rare because that particular Secretary of the Treasury died like 29 days in office."
At first, the locksmith struggled to open the safe. After more than half an hour, the safe was open. Inside were coins, silver bars, soggy bills, and jewelry.
"You must feel like a pirate finding treasure!" redditor jojogotskillz7 wrote.
"Absolutely did! Funny that as a boy, in that very house, my Grandma read me Treasure Island and I always dreamed of finding something like this!" evilenglish responded.