Student Finds Bags Of Sunken Treasure In Oakland's Lake Merritt During School Trash Cleanup

Sixth-grade students at St. Paul's Episcopal School in Oakland, Calif. weren't looking to be thanked when they volunteered to pick up garbage around a local lake as part of a school cleanup project on Thursday.

But one 11-year-old girl pulling bags of trash from the water seemed to get a cosmic reward when she spotted two bags sticking out of the lake that ended up being filled with over 100 pieces of antique jewelry, foreign coins, rings, bracelets, and even military medals, the Associated Press reports.

"I think (the items) belong to different people and are from different parts of the world. There were rings of different sizes. Coins with pictures of Christ and others with a picture of a menorah. A lot of diversity," the student told the Oakland Tribune, requesting that her name not be published in case the items were involved in a crime.

Students at St. Paul's Episcopal, who help clean the lake every Thursday as part of a long-standing community service project at the school, said they usually find wallets, cell phones, and clothing items while cleaning.

"We find a lot of stuff, a lot of tennis balls and things, but no, never that," one sixth-grader told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It was basically the best thing we ever found in there."

As students might have expected, police confiscated the items in order to do an investigation and hopefully return them to their rightful owners.

Check out more photos of the students and their treasure:

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Comments

[Meisyria]

10:39 PM on 04/04/2012

lol the popo doesn't abide by Finders Keepers

[cookscove]

08:33 PM on 04/02/2012

Once the police get their hands on it there will be a mysterious disappearance.

[PrunellaC]

07:20 PM on 04/02/2012

Nice that there's some good news out of Oakland today.

[GNG]

05:12 PM on 04/02/2012

Congratulations to the class for doing the right thing, getting help in trying to find the rightful owner. I hope that the police, if they fail to do so, will also do the right thing and return the unclaimed items back to the class for an auction to raise funds for their school or class.

[RButler]

04:43 PM on 04/02/2012

How long do the police have to 'find' the rightful owners. Is there a provision to let the girl know as soon as they determined that they couldn't find the owners?

[michla]

04:54 PM on 04/02/2012

90 days. My daughter goes to the school. From what I hear, any unclaimed property will probably revert to the school.

[RButler]

05:04 PM on 04/02/2012

Thanks. I'm glad there is a time limit. It's only right.

[RButler]

04:38 PM on 04/02/2012

I lived in the Bay Area in the 70s and once heard on the news about a human foot being found in it. I'm surprised they let the kids do that without HAZMAT gear.

[michla]

04:58 PM on 04/02/2012

I got thrown in that lake in the 70's. Really, really disgusting... (It was after winning a crew race -- a tradition that requires detox in those circumstances.)

[duggal]

04:10 PM on 04/02/2012

The student's generosity should be headline news in all papers.
Congratulation

[Joshua Boteler]

04:04 PM on 04/02/2012

lmfao..Or parents or adults who will tell these children its not theirs so they can take it

[Unlisted2u]

03:16 PM on 04/02/2012

That has pawn shop robbery written all over it.

[tamazul]

03:14 PM on 04/02/2012

It was probably the "catch of the day" or night, from some "cat burglar" of yesteryear.

[Mr Crabs]

03:13 PM on 04/02/2012

I'm sure the pieces will make its way into the proper hands (of the police) no way you can trace individual items like that. I've had entire car stereo systems stolen and I had the serial numbers written down with no trace of them ever popping up ever.

[FZliveson]

03:09 PM on 04/02/2012

Since it IS the Oakland, CA Police, I believe the intonation in the quote below when it depicts a rather authoritarian confiscation, rather than encouraging the children to entrust the police to see if they can locate owners.  It was probably "loot" from multiple robberies and to find the multiple owners would be next to impossible, especially if photographs are shown

"As students might have expected, police confiscated the items in order to do an investigation and hopefully return them to their rightful owners." 

I also have very serious doubts the "rightful owners will be found and the stuff "evaporates," with no word to the finder(s) as to the ultimate disposition.

[r adams2]

03:39 PM on 04/02/2012

it will go back to the finder(s) in that case.

[RTIII]

04:27 PM on 04/02/2012

Will?

I'll agree with "should."

[FZliveson]

06:12 PM on 04/02/2012

I have NEVER seen anything in the news about the police ever giving stuff back. My car was broken into one night and my baseball glove stolen. The thief was apprehended, two cars down from mine with the glove. The San Mateo County judicial system held onto my glove for years and then destroyed it. JUSTICE is an abstract dream more often than not.

[Eileen Warren]

05:43 PM on 04/02/2012

She should at the very least get a decent reward!

[FZliveson]

06:09 PM on 04/02/2012

YES! but from whom? In this case a reward would be a "share of the booty." Since the Oakland constabulary have appropriated property under some guise of law, they would assume the brokerage of the spoils if THEY were to give a reward. I think the girl needs to get a tough lawyer and follow this closely. But Oakland City Hall is bad. Have you seen the Eastwood movie "CHANGELING"? Mind blower. Be well, FZLO

[cardholder]

02:47 PM on 04/02/2012

Wow! Oakland Police have a "windfall" treasure trove. Just imagine how much an auction will earn the city. They could hire a couple of new officers with this find.

[SDindependent]

02:38 PM on 04/02/2012

The Oakland police will find the owners?

[kvanness]

02:48 PM on 04/02/2012

Yeah right.

[Snides]

02:35 PM on 04/02/2012

AHHAHAHAHAHAHHAA! Police will return to the rightful owners.
HAHAHAHHAHA! Of course they will.