New Jersey man finds $1,000 in cash from 1930s while landscaping lawn

WILDWOOD, N.J. — Yard work paid off in a big way for a New Jersey man, who found cash buried on his property while doing renovations.

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Rich and Suzanne Gilson purchased a home in Wildwood, New Jersey, four years ago, and have been working on renovations to the house ever since, USA Today reported. Rich Gilson, who works in home inspections and renovations, told the newspaper that he began working on the driveway in front of the garage on July 8.

“So I start digging,” Gilson told USA Today. “I’m hitting concrete. I’m hitting rock. I’m hitting glass.” Gilson said eventually he found “these two things, and they look like root balls.”

“I thought it was trash,” Gilson told WTXF.

Gilson tossed them aside but took a closer look on Sunday when he saw them again. A closer inspection revealed that what he thought were “root balls” were actually bundles wrapped in paper and bound with rubber bands, NJ.com reported.

Gilson and his wife were shocked to discover that the bundles were cigar-shaped rolls of $10 and $20 bills, and shared photos of their find to Facebook. In the post, they said they found a total of $1,000 of bills printed in 1934, which equates to approximately $20,000 today.

“Either somebody robbed a bank and buried it there, or somebody didn’t trust the banks in 1934 during the height of the depression,” Gilson told WTXF.

The money had been buried in sand under the porch of the home, which would have been accessible via a crawlspace, Gilson told NJ.com. Gilson told the outlet that he believes the money had been inside of a jar he found broken nearby, which had the number “7″ on the bottom.

Gilson told USA Today that he has no plans to spend the money.

“It’s a great story, and if I start to tell a story and somebody says, ‘can I see it?’, and I say, ‘well I bought a hoagie with it.’ That seems silly.”

Gilson also said that he has no plans to look for more treasure on his property, and doesn’t want anyone else looking, either.

“Please don’t come to my house with a shovel,” Gilson told USA Today. “I’m trying to finish the house, not make more work for myself.”

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