Kobe was working on a building site in Dendermonde when gold found in Belgium turned into a €9 million mystery. He first thought the objects were €1 coins, then saw a gold nugget and realised the find was larger than anyone on site expected.
Construction workers were demolishing a building on Tuesday on Van Langenhovestraat in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde and laying a sewer pipe when they uncovered gold coins and ingots bricked into a cellar wall. Kobe said, "At first I thought they were €1 coins." He added, "Then we also saw a gold nugget lying there. That’s when we realised it was something bigger."
Mario Hands It to Police
After the first discovery, Mario picked up the gold after the workers shouted that they had found gold. He told his manager, who told him to notify the building owner and the police, and the gold is now with the police at a secure location.
Mario said, "We kept digging up more coins and bars. Only then did it really sink in what we’d found. It was a strange feeling." After 33 years in the construction industry, he said, "this is the first time I’ve experienced anything like this". The scale of the haul made the site work feel less like a routine demolition and more like a search through a sealed wall.
East Flanders Tests Ownership
The East Flanders public prosecutor is investigating how the gold ended up at the site, and the ownership of the gold has not been determined. A spokesperson for the building owner said the discovery could be the result of fraudulent activity and that the gold may have been hidden there, which leaves a direct split between where the hoard was found and who may be entitled to keep it.
Kobe also said the workers briefly considered keeping the find, but he added, "Of course, we did briefly consider keeping it. But it’s simply too much money. If it were a few thousand euros, it might be feasible. But €9 million – you simply can’t keep that hidden." The next step is not excavation but procedure: the police keep the hoard secure while the East Flanders inquiry decides how the coins and ingots reached the cellar wall and who, if anyone, has a claim to them.
