1992
Contest: I had decided that I would hide the
treasure in a park on the west side of Grand Rapids (MI), John Ball
Park. Because the park also housed the local zoo, it
attracted a steady stream of traffic. Furthermore, because it
was a zoo, it was closely watched at night by the local police.
So, I thought the best time to hide the treasure would be in broad
daylight, in disguise.
I packed my portable drill in a
shoulder bag, along with a hammer, nails, and a half-dozen signs, and
went to the park. The signs read something like this:
"Lost, small cocker spaniel -- Answers to the name of
'Spanky.' If found, call 555-2312. Reward."
Frantically, I went from
telephone pole to telephone pole, nailing up my signs. The truly
interested (nosey) people in the park went right up and check the
signs out. After I
had posted three or four signs, I proceeded to go to the pole I had
pre-selected for the treasure. I reached into my shoulder bag,
as I had at every other pole, but this time I removed my portable
drill. I had already pre-measured the depth of hole I would
need. Quickly I pushed the drill into the pole, and pulled it
out. Within ten seconds I had drilled the hole, and replaced the
drill in my bag. Pulling a sign out of the bag, I lifted it to
the pole and prepared to tack it up. Instead, I inserted the treasure, wrapped around a nail and covered with wax, into
the hole. While it appeared I was driving the tack holding the
sign, I was really sliding the nail, with the treasure onboard, through the
sign and into the hole. I then turned around, and walked across
the park to another pole, where I tacked up another sign. On
my way back to my car, I removed the sign from the pole with the
treasure, and tacked that sign up on another pole nearby. Keep
in mind, there were literally dozens of people in the park while I was
doing this, and many of them were watching me.
The drama was successful.
The treasure remained hidden for 20 weeks, 14 of which included
clues.
1993
Contest: Hiding the treasure in 1993 required
a different approach. I wanted to hide the treasure under the
main sign for the Kentwood Library (Kentwood, MI). The sign was in plain sight
on a very busy street. The one element of cover was a small
growth of evergreen trees just to the south side of the sign. I
knew I could not be undetected if I hid it during the day.
Libraries are very busy during the day. I decided to attack it
at night. The best time, I thought, would be about 4:30 AM, on a
weekday morning. I thought that time would work best, because it
would be over
two hours after the bars closed (in this area), and right
before the early morning factory workers would be headed to
work.
The library had an
"In" drive and an "Out" drive. I thought I
could have a driver (my wife) swing in the "In" drive, drop
me off behind the evergreens, and then leave through the
"Out." After 10 minutes she would pick me up. If
she came to pick me up through the "Out" drive, I would know
it was her. I
had timed the drive, so I knew where she would have to turn around to
make it back in the time frame I had allotted. I prepared
for the event by spray-painting my drill black.
At 3:30 AM, we
got up and I put on a totally black outfit, -- Black shoulder bag,
black drill, black boots, black
pants, black sweater, black gloves and black ski mask.
When we opened the door to
leave, both my wife and I laughed out loud. As often happens in
Michigan, in December, it was snowing. In fact, it was not just
snowing, it was snowing very hard, and the wind was blowing the snow
all around. I could barely see 50 feet. Obviously, my
black clothes were not going to be terribly effective.
Fortunately, visibility was so low that it
provided the necessary cover, in spite of my worthless disguise.
Everything went as planned, at
first. My wife pulled in the drive, and we proceeded to the
evergreen trees. She dropped me off. I moved
into position under the cover of the evergreen grove, and she pulled out of the
lot. Because we had this thing all timed out, I moved quickly to
the sign. The horizontal bottom of the sign was wood, about two
feet from the ground. There was landscaping around it, with a
slight elevation directly beneath the place I wanted to place the
treasure. I removed my drill out of my bag, and
began to drill. The wood was a little harder than I anticipated,
and my battery a little weaker than desirable, but after several
attempt I was able to penetrate the sign to the necessary depth.
One minute had elapsed.
I replaced the drill, and
removed the treasure from the bag. I slid it into the hole, and
tapped it into place with a hammer. Slick. ...And I
finished right on
time. But where is my ride? I kept watching the
"Out" drive, but no one entered.
The plan was to come back after
10 minutes, entering the parking lot through the "Out"
drive. That way I would be able to see her approaching, and make
my break for the pick-up spot. I waited and waited. Twelve
minutes, fifteen, seventeen... Finally, my wife opened the car
door and called to me. Visibility was so poor that she missed
the planned entry entirely, and so came in the other drive. I
was not watching that drive. Anyway, I crawled back to the
car, got in, and left the library undetected.
That contest was successful as
well. The treasure remained hidden for 26 weeks.
1996
Contest: (I did not have
contests from 1994 to 1996. The reason being -- I had decided
after the 1993 contest that I would have to find a more efficient
method of publishing clues. It took me over two years to develop
the software apparatus to implement it.)
The
1996 contest was the most exciting challenge (to this time) I have ever had
while hiding the
treasure. I had decided to hide the treasure in a fairly remote
park. It presented a special challenge, because
during the day, in the summer, the park is packed with kids, and
during the night, the police would be suspicious of any car driving in
the area. It was located in a township called "Ada."
Ada is known for two things: it is the home of the Amway Corp.,
and it is the residence of the most affluent in the area. It was
very well-patrolled by the police. My
plan was quite similar to that of the '93 contest. We
would go to the park, on a week day, at about 4 AM.
I think it was a Wednesday
morning, in November. We headed out to the park. I was
again dressed all in black. This time, however, black was
appropriate. There was not much of a moon, so I carried a
small black flashlight. We approached the park, to the
assigned drop off point. My wife stopped, and I quickly jumped
out. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to disable the dome light,
so when I opened the door, the light came on. ...And,
unfortunately, I must have been spotted.
Our plan was for my wife to
drive for twelve minutes, then to turn around, and come back. I
thought I would need about 20 minutes to walk back to the pond (where
I was going to hide the treasure), do the deed, and make it back up to
the pickup point.
Everything went well, I
thought. At the time, I was pretty much convinced that someone in the house
across from the park might have seen me get out of the car, and that person
may then have called the police. There was a light on in
the house. However, I did not see anyone come to the
window. At any rate, I made my way back to the hiding
place, drilled my hole and hid my treasure. This part of
the adventure seemed to go exceptionally well. I was going to be well within my time
constraints. This seemed too easy.
I headed back to the road for
the pick up. I had my little flashlight on. I wrapped my
hand around the bulb, part, so that just a small sliver of light escaped to
illuminate my path. I proceeded along the back paths toward the rendezvous.
Suddenly, when I looked up ahead, and I saw a small red
light. I immediately stopped moving. I quickly realized that I was about 50 feet away from
the rear window of a car, and the red light was a light on the dash of
that car. I fell to the ground, covering my flashlight.
The car was a police cruiser, with a very bright spot light. I
had not been seen. The officer opened his door and got
out. He had a flash light, and he shined it over my body, and
all around the general area. He then got back in his car, turned
around, and shined his spot light at me (actually over me). He
did not see me.
After a few more moments, he
pulled around and started to leave the park. I peaked up,
and it appeared he was communicating on his radio. I had only about
50
seconds to reach the pickup point, which was a couple hundred yards
away. I remained on my stomach. Eventually, the police
cruiser pulled out of the park, and headed on its way.
As soon as I was certain the
patrol car had left the park, I got up and started running to the pickup.
Suspecting that the
neighbor had reported me, I hid in the ditch adjacent to the pickup,
and waited to be picked up. Unfortunately, my wife did not recognize the
rendezvous spot in the
dark, and since I was hiding, she passed me by. Fortunately, the patrol car
had just disappeared in the night. I got out of the ditch and
ran after my wife, waving my little flashlight frantically.
Finally, she saw me in her rearview mirror, realized what she had
done, and stopped -- about 250 yards from the intended
pickup. I caught up with her.
Wisely, she did not back
up. The back-up lights could have been an added problem, had the
neighbor still been watching. I got in the car, totally out of
breath, and off we went.
Due to all the potential
problems (having most likely been spotted by the neighbor), I did not publish clues for over a
year later. I know the contest was successful, because the
treasure remained undiscovered during seven months of clues, about 100
in all.
2000
Contest:
As always, hiding the treasure in the year 2000 involved
adventure. One of the most important aspects involved in
successfully hiding the treasure is doing it in such a way so as not
to give the location away beforehand. That means I must visit
the site in advance, but not more than once in advance. The site
we selected in 2000 was Townsand Park, on the far North end of the
Grand Rapids area. This is a nice park, but one that is not
frequented in March. I determined immediately that the best time
to hide the treasure would be during the day. I felt that to do
it at night might attract too much attention. It is the type of
Park that might serve as sort of a Lovers' Lane. I thought that
my car might get the attention of the law enforcement. After
all, a Michigan State Police Post is located nearby.
The best time to hid the
treasure, I concluded, would be during the day. So that is
what I did.
As I had frequently done in the
past, I planned to use a drill to bury the treasure in a wood
post. In the past, I simply transported the drill hanging from a
strap around my neck. This tactic would not work this
time. While there were not a lot of people in the Park at 10 AM
on a weekday, there were some. My portable drill created too
much of a bulge under my jacket. The solution -- I would stick
the drill down the front of my pants, and carry it a little like the
old-time dirt farmer carried his six-shooter when he went in to town
on a Saturday night.
Everything worked well, at
first. I casually strolled through the Park to the place I had
selected to hide the treasure. Carefully and quickly I drilled
the hole in the post. I successfully did it in such a way so as
to facilitate the flow of rain away from the treasure. I
inserted the treasure in the post, and did one final inspection to be
sure I was successful. It looked perfect. So, I
arose, pushed the drill down into my pants again, and headed back to
my car.
The only problem was this:
There now were some people in the Park, and the "safety" on
my drill was not on. Either I had failed to click the
button before shoving it down the front of my pants, or the pressure
from my belt clicked it off. At any rate, if I took long steps,
I could feel the drill motor start to turn on. Now, you
must remember, that it was not just the drill motor that was stuck
down the front of my pants. At the end of the drill motor was
1/2 inch diameter high-speed drill bit measuring nearly six inches in
length! You can imagine where the end of that thing wound
up. After the first two or three instances of the drill motor
starting to rotate, I stopped walking and leaned over a bridge.
I waited for a couple of seconds, but there were just too many people
around for me to start reaching down my pants. So, I just
slowly walked away.
I found that if I kept my pace
slow, and my steps short, I could control (to some degree) the
pressure on the drill trigger. Unfortunately, the shaft of
the drill bit had already twisted my underwear around it so that it
was nearly impossible to walk. Every step I took was an
adventure. I had made up my mind that should the situation
worsen, I would simply have to stop altogether, reach down my pants,
put the motor in reverse, pull the drill out of my pants, and simply
carry the drill in my hand. Of course, at that point my cover
would have been blown, and I would have had to go back and retrieve
the treasure. That would have destroyed weeks of planning
and preparation. Only as a last resort, I reasoned, would I give
up on it.
After a painfully long time, I
reached my car. Actually, it was not my car.
This time my cover involved using a vehicle I was not normally
seen in. Unfortunately, it was a very small
car. As I slid in behind the steering wheel, I found that
I was unable to extend my legs. That meant that one last
time the drill motor started up. This time it did so with a vengeance.
It wound not only my underwear around the drill bit, but it even
involved my jeans. The obstruction was so severe that it
actually thrust the handle portion of the Dewalt upward until it
came in contact with the steering wheel, and locked up. I was at
that point, able to remove the battery, and put an end to the threat
to my private parts.
Now that I look back on it, I
get a chuckle out of it. But at the time, it was very serious
business. I actually had to leave the powerless-instrument in my
pants until I got home, because it had so inextricably involved the
itself with my underwear.
Bottom line: No harm was
done, and the treasure was again successfully hidden.
2001
Contest: At
the Fish Ladder, downtown Grand Rapids. I had some of my most
interesting experiences hiding the treasure this time. As
the date suggests, these were difficult times. Following 911, all
activity was deemed suspicious. So, when I set out to hide the
treasure just down the street from the IRS building, and across the
Grand River from the US Post Office, I drew a lot of attention.
I had spent
a lot of time determining that this was the right location.
Previously I had selected locations in areas outside of the city.
This time I wanted it to be more centrally located, besides, I have
always liked the Fish Ladder. But I did want to do it a little
differently.
For one thing, in the
past I had always wrapped the ten-dollar bill around a spike, and
buried it in wood. This time, I decided to bury it in concrete. For
that project, I had to buy a battery-powered rotor-hammer. Also, I
knew I had to it at night, so no one would hear the noise.
We started going down
there at around three in the morning. Unfortunately, there were
always federal agents on patrol. Their concern was for the IRS
Building, so any traffic in the area was carefully scrutinized.
We made four early
morning trips down there, each time driving a different cars. Each
time we picked up a tail, so had to abort.
Finally, I had heard
there was going to be a hard rain storm. That would be perfect. I
set my alarm for 4AM. I was happy to see that it was pouring. I
donned my all-black clothes, including a stocking hat, and we jumped
in the car--Evie driving. My plan was for Evie to drive us down
there, and drop me off. I knew just about ho long it should take,
and we timed her return to the second.
It was the hardest rain storm
of the millennium. There were no Federal Agents anywhere in sight.
Evie pulled up to the small parking lot, and I jumped out. The water
was standing two inches deep everywhere. I had a small flashlight
that I carried in my mouth. I laid out on the ground, and drilled my
hole. Actually, there already was a hole in the wall, so I just
cleaned it out a bit.
I slid the spike (with the
ten-dollar wrapped around it) into the wall, and sealed the hole
around it to prevent water damage. I had to place the drill on the
back of my legs to keep it out of the mud.
I then checked my stopwatch,
and realized that I was late. I did not want Evie to be waiting for
me. She should only have to drive up, and I would be waiting. I
looked around for Federal Agents. There were none--no police either.
Thank goodness Dunkin Donuts is open 24/7. So I slowly stood up, and
looked around again. It was still pouring. I then made my way back
to the pick up spot. Evie was just driving up as well--perfect
timing. I jumped in the car; she barely had to stop.
I tossed the drill in a trash bag on the floor in the back, and
pulled off stocking hat. We had pulled it off!
2008
Contest: Now,
as of September 17, 2008, we are at it again.
