Man Dumped 22 Pounds of Gold in the Trash to Keep From His Wife
There are many stories in the annals of divorce proceedings about the extremes spouses go through to keep money for themselves. Now, a report from Colorado that a man dumped 22 pounds of gold in the trash to keep from his wife.
Bank records obtained by the newspaper showed Jones cleaned out their retirement and investment accounts in May, and converted them into gold coins and bars through a Phoenix, Ariz. based precious metals broker, CMI Gold and Silver. A CMI representative told The Gazette that, based on average gold prices in May, a half-million dollars “would buy about 22 pounds” of gold.
Jones said in his deposition that, “after drinking wine and eating good food, he went out to the trash bin behind the hotel and “pitched” the gold.
“We say that when people are divorcing, they enter a state of temporary insanity,” John-Paul Lyle, the wife’s attorney told the newspaper. “But on a scale of 1 to 10, this is my 10.”
Now, almost half a year later, recovering his half a million dollars of booty would be like recovering buried treasure. The hotel’s trash, you see, is collected and hauled off to the local county landfill.
“We accept up to 30,000 tons of trash during an average month,” Ken Manzo, district manager of the Fountain Landfill reported. Each load is dumped, spread out and compacted with heavy machinery, then covered with dirt to begin a new layer of trash. This process goes on and on, ton after ton, month after month. It’s not how he would have handled the situation, Manzo said.
Jones boasted in his deposition he wanted to withdraw the money “in cash,” but the bank wouldn’t let him. His only recourse was to convert it into gold and collect it in increments, then dump it in the trash load by load, he claimed.
“If [cash] would have been an option, I would have been walking around giving people $100 bills,” he said.