[+++Poguru+++]

Rob McCune, an environmental technician for Yakima County, found a large amount of silver that had been mistakenly discarded in a large plastic bin at the county's hazardous waste disposal area. He returned the silver to the family, later saying "It was the right thing to do."






YAKIMA, Wash. -- Rob McCune thought the container looked odd when he retrieved it from a drop box at the Terrace Heights Landfill. Little did the hazardous waste technician know how unusual it would turn out to be.

After removing the locking lid, the 50-year-old McCune found himself staring at several small canvas bags, which he opened only to find shiny bars of silver.

McCune said his initial reaction was to freak out.

Somebody had turned in the container, which had a "d-Con" label on the side, believing it held rodent bait.

But there was a clue that something else might be inside: On the lid was a name and address.

That led to the grateful family of the late Robert Lynch, the well-known Yakima auto dealer, World War II veteran and community leader who died in September at age 89.

Rob Lynch, Lynch's son, said he and his sisters had no idea the silver bars even existed. Their dad never said a word about them. The family theorizes that the elder Lynch invested in the silver in the early 1970s during the oil crisis and a period of high inflation and high unemployment.

"He wanted to have something very liquid but not the dollar," Lynch said.

The family has asked that the exact amount of silver not be disclosed. But at the current market price of $33 per ounce, the metal represents a substantial sum of money.

Family members had taken the heavy white container, which they found under a work bench, to the landfill as they cleaned out Lynch's home. The landfill repackages for safe disposal all sorts of unopened paints, oils, solvents and household chemicals.

McCune's supervisors, including Solid Waste Manager Wendy Mifflin and county Public Services Director Vern Redifer, praised his honesty.

While he does feel good about the outcome, McCune, a six-year county employee, deflects the praise.

"I knew it needed to go back to the Robert Lynch family. That was what I was going to do," McCune said Tuesday.

Lynch, who became emotional remembering his father during a telephone interview, said he was still overcome and almost speechless about McCune's good deed.

"The thing you have to know is my dad was known as a straight arrow. I'd like to think it meant honesty no matter the circumstances," said the orchardist. "He would be really proud of our community and of our civil servants."

"My father would have been heaping huge praise on this guy," he added.
McCune, a native of Canada, moved to the United States with his parents and grew up in the Seattle area. He and his wife, a native of Selah, moved to the area several years ago to care for his ailing mother-in-law.

McCune actually discovered the container's contents last week but kept it a secret, telling only his wife and parents. The name Robert Lynch meant nothing to him and he wasn't sure how to proceed with the unusual receptacle, so he decided to wait until Mifflin returned from vacation.

Mifflin said McCune walked into the administrative office Tuesday carrying the one-gallon bucket, telling her he needed to show her something.

"My first reaction was it better not be a snake in that bucket," she said.

Mifflin said it was the strangest thing she had seen in her 25 years in the solid waste business. She immediately notified her supervisors and the younger Lynch's wife.

"I'm really proud of Rob," Mifflin said. "He did the right thing."

http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories...ious-discovery

[weaddercaps]

By substantial, I assume they mean more than 5 figures. Thats 303 Oz. How do you not notice that a box of rat bait weighs 21 pounds? IDIOTS.

[aliceingoogs]

Mifflin said McCune walked into the administrative office Tuesday carrying the one-gallon bucket, telling her he needed to show her something.

1 gallon is 231 cubic inches.
1 cubic inch of silver would be about 171.9 grams
There's about 31.1 grams in a troy ounce.
So each cubic inch is about 5.5 troy ounces of silver.

So if the one gallon bucket was poured full of liquid silver, the contents would be about 1270.5oz

Multiplied by $30 = $3811.5

[uchetrip]

The unspoken warning here is that you take your chances when you hide your silver in plain sight disguised as something ordinary or even disposable, such as rat poison, an old stereo receiver, a doorstop or Grandma's old douchebag box. This story is a big reason why I am not a fan of the "hide-in-plain-sight" tactic for storing silver: your heirs are very likey going to discard your ingeniously concealed silver horde and not even know it ever existed.

[Pippoles]

The unspoken warning here is that you take your chances when you hide your silver in plain sight disguised as something ordinary or even disposable, such as rat poison, an old stereo receiver, a doorstop or Grandma's old douchebag box. This story is a big reason why I am not a fan of the "hide-in-plain-sight" tactic for storing silver: your heirs are very likley going to discard your ingeniously concealed silver horse and not even know it ever existed.

Good reminder that if you hide it , you need to have a way that your heirs will have a way to find what was hidden, at a time when you want them to.

Something that will only be opened after you are gone, if you do not trust them to know about your stash while you are still living.

[Abnorbprootly]

Make a "map" of sorts outlining where the stuff is hidden.

Codify the map in such a way that it takes 2 pieces of coding to restore the map (lots of ways to do this esp. electronically).

Give one piece to your trusted family members ASAP. Give the other piece to the lawyer who is going to read your last will and testament.

Example: Give the family members a passphrase and password. Give the lawyer an encrypted file with related viewer on a disk or backup tape.

Oh, and no mention of what the ordeal is about, just say that the information will be useful when you pass.

[weaddercaps]

1 gallon is 231 cubic inches.
1 cubic inch of silver would be about 171.9 grams
There's about 31.1 grams in a troy ounce.
So each cubic inch is about 5.5 troy ounces of silver.

So if the one gallon bucket was poured full of liquid silver, the contents would be about 1270.5oz

Multiplied by $30 = $3811.5

Move your decimal one place to the right. $38,115.xx

[SzefciuCba]

$5 says the kids have it divided up and sold within the month.

[8Uxtkz7F]

I allow one person to know where my stash is and what to do with it if I am found "paws up"...

[avaicavum]

My cat is the only one with a clue

[Anydayhybeall]

I hope they gave the guy a finder's fee....

[ExpodoDop]

I can't wait to go to the Sheriff's auction on Ponce's place.

[onelovemp]

My cat is the only one with a clue

i suppose chickens and other farm animals can be trained to lead someone to a mass of metal.

you just need to feed them there.

then they will go there and look up at you with the chicken version of "where's my food" look that a dog gives you. in a chicken's case, this happens to be - squawking very loudly when they think they have run out of food.


of course, for our members, this may mean putting on scuba gear and tying fish to your boat wreck. then you just tell your heirs, "follow the seals".

that would make a very short will.


speaking of wills, i was talking about the subject of death with my mother the other day. what brought the subject up was the accounting of Steve Jobs' death. he was sort of awake when he died, i mean, no Alzheimer's. he said "oh wow oh wow oh wow", his sister said. probably not in pain.

so i was wondering, what is a better way to go - awake like that, or in a fog, like when someone has Alzheimer's.

i suppose i could understand why the Eskimo's & Indians do the "go away and die on an ice flow". they can feel themselves slipping, like when you can feel you are about to pass out.

[freddyujnf]

... Grandma's old douchebag box...

LOL. You have a way with words, I must say.

[Gmvkgkmn]

You are not going to believe this:

First I had no idea the old man died this year because I no longer associate with my family.

I would say there is about a 25% chance that he got that silver from my Father. That is my rather small home town and My father was big on the metals scene in the 70-80's and he dealt with the old man on several occasions. The old man was over at the house several times talking metals to my father. I remember going to school with one of the Lynch girls probably his one of his grandaughters.

WOW The world seems rather small today.

[Abnorbprootly]

It's worth noting the original owner had placed the silver in a container that was explicitly not meant for general disposal which is precisely why the landfill guy had pulled it out of the waste stream.

Apparently the original owner had more faith in his people to not poison the environment than they deserved.