Two Friends Accidentally Discover a Long Lost Item From WW2

By: Carol Kingston | Published: Sep 15, 2023

Dale Hufford thought his flight was like any other. He was on his way from Baltimore to visit his friend, Mike Peter, who lived in Lobetal, Germany. In their conversation making plans for his visit, Mike happened to mention to Dale that there was a pair of pipes mysteriously protruding from the ground in a secret place near his house.

He suggested that when Dale arrived, they should check them out since Mike lived near a heavily wooded forest and these pipes didn’t seem to belong. Dale was excited to see the pipes, even though Mike seemed unimpressed by them. His tune would soon change.

An Adventure on the Horizon

With Dale’s excitement edging Mike on, the two decided to have a look. Little did they know that Mike’s initial low-level curiosity and Dale’s overt enthusiasm would blossom into an adventure into the woods and deep into an underground spiral leading them to a buried treasure, and even a brush with the law!

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Those strange pipes lead to something neither of them would have ever imagined, and they risked their lives in the process.

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Dale Was Brimming With Enthusiasm Once He Arrived in Germany

The moment Dale stepped a foot off the plane in Germany he could barely contain his excitement. He was happy to see his friend, but he couldn’t wait to go see the mysterious pipes with Mike. He urged Mike to begin making plans to investigate. Mike explained to Dale that he assumed the pipes were part of something larger underground, but he had no idea what.

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There was nothing to indicate that the pipes were leading to anything larger. It was just a hunch of Mike’s, so they decided to explore them further.

The Pipes Protruded Without Reason

After making solid plans and packing a few backpacks with a flashlight, the two arrived at the site near Mike’s home to investigate the pipes on an afternoon when the air was crisp and chilly. The metal pipes looked odd sticking up from the ground among thousands of trees in the forest near Mike’s home. They seemed so out of place.

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Something ominous crawled up Dale’s spine the moment he laid eyes on the pipes, though. They were guarding something. His intuition sensed something strange and foreboding. What could these pipes be for? The two friends soon found out.

The Two Friends Spotted an Entrance After Wandering Around the Periphery of the Pipes

Stairs were leading down from a dark, rectangular hole at ground level. There was an old iron gate that blocked the entrance and a sign that warned, “Betreten Verboten,” in German, meaning “Do Not Enter.”

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The two friends wouldn’t be deterred by the sign or the gate. Nor was the ominous feeling they both sensed but didn’t speak about going to stop them. They mustered the courage to forge onward.

The Iron Gate’s Lock Was Broken So Dale and Mike Pushed Through to Find the Mystery

Fortunately, the gate’s lock was broken, so the two pushed through it and began a descent down the dilapidated stairs. The locals had warned them about munitions at the site, and they had no way of calling for help if they were to get into trouble. Despite all this, they forged on.

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Moving cautiously down the hallway, they tried to be as careful as they could since they were on their own. One slip up and they might not find their way back at all.

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A Long and Whinding Hallway Led to a Concrete Maze

Mike suggested that the two avoid taking unnecessary turns down a maze-like hallway to avoid getting lost. They wandered for hours even with this intent, confused and disoriented inside a concrete labyrinth. Whoever had built this thing must have purposefully wanted to make it confusing.

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They had no idea how to get out or if someone would save them should they get stuck, so they just kept going.

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Strange Sounds and Smells

The hallway turned sharply after wandering for hours, and Mike and Dale got nervous. Just knowing they were miles underground was already messing with their heads, making them feel claustrophobic and lost. What was worse, the hallway started to widen and there was a horrid smell that grew stronger the more they ventured forth.

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Dale thought he heard a girl’s voice too, but then realized it was possibly his mind playing tricks on him, leaning on Mike momentarily to gather his wits.

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Strange Markings on the Walls

To go with the strange smell, there were weird markings on the walls and indentations that looked like someone or something had punched holes in them. The whole vibe was making their skin crawl. This was such a strange place, and they hadn’t even ventured very far in.

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The two men had an urge to turn back then, but curiosity made them keep going.

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A Rusted Door Off its Hinges

As Mike and Dale continued, they spotted a rusted yellow door ripped from its hinges. When they noticed Cyrillic writing stenciled onto the rusted door, every horror story they’d ever watched came flooding into their minds. The door looked as though it had once opened into a vault, but what it once held they could not determine.

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Not able to squelch their curiosity and despite their fear, they both agreed to continue on to solve the mystery.

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Sewage and Rot

The horrid smell seemed to be coming from sewage water and rot. Dale was so disgusted by the smell he was about to vomit, but they passed through the door that was off its hinges, strangely compelled to move forward.

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Most people would have turned back, but the two friends were in this together, their appetites for adventure already ramped up.

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A Shadowy Figure Appears

As they moved through the hallway, Mike slipped in the smelly water, sending waves out. He panicked and his flashlight beam caught a dark figure of someone crouching in the water like Gollum.

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As Dale swung his flashlight to try to reveal the figure, it was already gone. Mike and Dale looked quickly at one another and decided to escape from the shadowy figure as fast as they could, moving deeper into the tunnel-joined rooms.

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Finally a Back Entrance

They stumbled on a back entrance to the even deeper depths of Lager Koralle, a 1939 WWII bunker built for schooling Navy Intelligence. Rockets were also stored here that once were aimed at Berlin. It was the secretive headquarters of the Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine.

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The two friends were even more compelled to move forward now, knowing they were trespassing on military territory.

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Trying to Get Out

After hours of trudging through this underground, watery, smelly maze, they longed to leave.

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The idea of a creepy, shadowy figure looming in the cesspool was already enough to make them lose their minds, but they were fascinated by what was revealing itself, and couldn’t help but keep moving forward.

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Retracing Their Steps with a Single Flashlight

They noticed it was getting hard to breathe. The oxygen levels underground were quickly dissipating. Dale was starting to see spots and stars and worried he’d pass out. His brain desperately needed fresh, oxygenated air. His blood pressure was rising too.

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Mike also noticed that his heart was pumping strangely in his chest and that he was having difficulty moving.

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Something Glints in the Distance

Just as the two were about to give up, Dale caught a glimpse of a glinting object just around the corner of the water-filled room. The glint caught his eye. He began to wade toward the object, but Mike tried to stop him.

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Mike was too weak to offer much of a protest, so Dale waded forward as Mike squatted to relax his beating heart, desperate to catch his breath and calm himself.

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Knee Deep Water with a Flashlight in His Teeth

Determined to find out what was glinting, Dale waded knee-deep through the cesspool with his flashlight in his teeth. The glint seemed to call to him, so he kept wading until he was close enough to stick his hands into the water.

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His fingers fumbled until he touched something small and hard with engravings on it. He quickly put it in his pocket.

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Backing Out Drenched

Instinctually, Dale moved toward the west junction, and the two friends backtracked, waterlogged until they could no longer hear water dripping.

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They saw the yellow, rusted door again and breathed a slight sigh, knowing they were getting closer to the exit.

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Dale’s Mystery Treasure

Finally, the two emerged into the sunlight. Once they grabbed some fresh air, Dale remembered the object he had slid into his pocket. He reached in, his pants still wet from trudging through the murky water, and thumbed the engraving on it. He then pulled it out for a closer look.

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Upon inspection, Dale realized the inscription read 999.9. He was holding a 500-gram bar of pure, solid gold!

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WWII Era Gold

Dale and Mike realized there was something else intriguing about this underground bunker they had just emerged from. Others had ventured into the surrounding area to find WWII-era gold, too. They were not the only people who had been curious about the pipes emerging from underground in the middle of a forest.

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A fellow named Hans Glueck had once gone on a WWII treasure hunt, convinced he had finally located the right spot, exactly where Dale and Mike had just explored.

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Hans Glueck's Gold Hunt

Glueck’s search drove him to search for this gold his entire life. He knew that Chief Heinrich Himmler was ordered to empty the Berlin Reichsbank of all its gold and other valuables and send it on a train to the Alps.

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However, Chief Heinrich Himmler was arrested, and the officers recovered 76 kilograms of gold. Yet, they didn’t recover all of his gold meaning that remaining treasure was still left to be found.

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A Man with a Map Contacts Glueck

In Glueck’s interview with Bavarian TV in 1995, a man gave him a map and said he should look more closely at it. Perhaps Glueck would find something interesting here. Was this a clue?

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The map belonged to a Secret Service officer who had hidden the map in the lining of his coat, likely hoping to go back and retrieve the treasure for himself at some time in the future after the war had died down.

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The Glint of Treasure, the Growl of What?

Dale was admiring his gold treasure when a strange light flicked through the trees. He thought he was still shell-shocked from his and Mike’s journey into the subterranean maze.

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Mike finally started to look alive, still recovering from the oxygen loss moments before, when out of nowhere, there was barking and growling. The growing grew louder and louder. This could only mean one thing.

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Caught Red Handed

Dale knew the police were often looking for people who explored the area snooping around for treasure. The two men didn’t waste time. They hoisted their backpacks on and started to run as fast as they could. The barking sounds of the dogs began to fade the faster they ran.

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Mike followed Dale to the path they had started on so that they could escape back to Mike’s home.

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Finally Home

Finally, the two arrived at Mike’s house in Germany. They unloaded their backpacks onto a sofa, and Dale began wondering what other treasures they might have found in the watery, putrid pit they had just waded through.

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However, the echoes of the strange woman’s voice, the memory of the shady figure lurking in the cold, smelly room, and the horrid smells made going back seem unlikely.

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Giving up the Gold

Dale’s conscience got the best of him, and he eventually gave the gold bar over to the authorities who knew they had been trespassing in the forest, near the protruding pipes. He wasn’t about to have a run-in with the law in a foreign country.

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The police were simply flabbergasted by their find. They became more invested in the treasure they uncovered than of their illegal trespassing.

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Pure Gold Treasure

The two friends heard back from the police that the gold bar they had turned in was 500 grams of pure gold worth more than $18,000.

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They couldn’t figure out who originally made the gold bar since its identification numbers had been scratched out, and only some of the inscription remained. Regardless, this was an absurd discovery.

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Considering Another Adventure

Dale got a taste for gold in the two friends’ adventure and longed to go back. Mike wasn’t hearing it. They were both inexperienced treasure hunters, but they’d found something special, perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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They were lucky they came out of the underground tunnel alive, though. Would a second adventure be too risky?

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Watching the Recording

When the two looked at the video they had made of their underground adventure, they weren’t able to see the dark shadowy figure in the corner, as the light wasn’t sufficient to capture him on camera, but the gold was very, very real.

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Dale hoped that the original owner of the gold bar wouldn’t be located so that it could be returned to him by the police. Several thousand dollars would solve a lot of his money stress. As he was wishing for the best, he noticed something eerily strange while watching the video footage more closely.

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The Chilling Sound

Going to the frames where the two had thought a girl’s voice was speaking, the image was grainy and blurred, but once again, they heard the unmistakable sound of a little girl’s laughter.

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Who knows what the strange voice was all about? Or the shadowy figure lurking in the dark, watery depths of that creepy place. Ghosts of WWII? Something else? They may never know all the answers, but uncovering a secret hidden bunker was an adventure they’ll never forget. Just keep in mind that trespassing in places you shouldn’t be is highly illegal and also very dangerous. It’s best to stay away from such locations and leave any investigations to the professionals.

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The Boys Were Not The Only Ones

As mentioned before, the boys were not the only people to enter the area in search of suspected treasure. Though the boys were not there for that specific reason, there are many people who spend a lot of time trying to uncover buried treasure.

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What is even more interesting is when someone uncovers a treasure by complete mistake. What would feel better to you? Setting your heart on finding treasure and finding it? Or accidentally stumbling on a historical object?

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The Ironic Find

A news crew was covering a story in Gotland, Sweden. The news piece centered on the illegal treasure hunting that was being done at the Spilling Farm.

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While on assignment, the crew accidentally discovered the largest collection of Viking-age silver to ever be found. Along with the 150 pounds of silver, they also found 50 pounds of bronze!

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“Tanks a Lot” For the Free Mil!

A man named Nick Mead scored big time when he bought a tank off of Ebay for $40,000. Nick, the owner of “Tanks a Lot,” is an avid collector of tanks.

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His company offers tank and military driving experiences in the tank. The tank he bought ended up profiting him big. While cleaning the fuel tank, Nick and his mechanic stumbled upon five gold bars, each weighing 12 pounds. They are approximately$1.2 million.

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Dad Had a Really Great Secret

A brother and sister located in New York had been paying their father’s safe deposit box and had become fed up. The deposit box cost $800 annually and they were ready to stop paying it.

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When it was opened, they uncovered a treasure beyond their wildest dreams. Inside the safe were 16 canvas bags , each of which held a thousand coins. In total it was valued at $1.5 million.

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A Will of Good Deed Ends Well

A man named Eric Lawes decided to help a farmer who had lost their hammer in a field one day. However, the day ended with Eric walking away with a lot more than just human kindness in his back pocket.

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His equipment began to give off a strong signal so he began to dig. He found a silver spoon and a gold coin. Eric, continuing in the good faith that he started with, alerted authorities. Archaeologists found nearly 60 pounds of gold items in the ground.

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A Find For the Ages

A farmer named Fred Johnson gave Terry Herbert (a metal detector enthusiast) permission to walk onto his land with his equipment. Fred thought at most, Terry would unearth a lost wrench.

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This was not what Terry found. Terry discovered what is now known as the Staffordshire Hoard. It was filled with gold, silver, and garnet items. The items date back to Anglo-Saxon times! Terry found 4,000 in total.

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Nearly Defeated, But Not Quite

In 1958, a man named Ted Seaton decided to head back to her car after a day of trying to uncover treasure. His hunt had not been successful and it was time to call it quits.

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As he headed back, his metal detector began to go off. He picked something off the ground, originally assuming it was a woman’s old compact case. It was not. Ted had discovered the Middleham Jewel–a 15th century gold and sapphire pendant. It was only up for auction for 4 minutes and sold for $4.3 million.

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A Really Good Day for a Walk

A couple in Northern California decided to take their dog for a walk on their own property one day, like any other day. What transpired was anything but normal, however!

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Inside several metal canisters, the couple discovered mint-condition gold coins. Mint condition. The find was named Saddle Ridge Hoard. Lucky ducks.

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A Sunken Ship Full of Booty

Thanks to the use of modern technology, a ship that sank beneath the surface of the sea more than 300 years ago was discovered off the coast of Columbia.

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The Spanish ship was carrying billions (you read that right) worth in gold, silver, and emeralds when it sank. The treasure trove is believed to be worth between $4 billion and $17 billion.

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A Free For All

In 1985, workers who were renovating a building in Sroda Slaska stumbled across old silver coins. There were no further searches done for any more treasure and the building was continued to be worked on.

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A building nearby was renovated and more coins were found. This alerted people to get in while the getting was good. Before the authorities got there, a mini gold rush had taken place, and the treasures disappeared. It is believed that there was between $50 million and $100 million.

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