Mystery as hundreds of pieces of precious jewellery items wash up on a beach in poor fishing village.
The village’s 2,000 residents have joined the search for treasure, and have raked the few square feet of sand in Guaca, Venezuela.
Since late September, they have found hundreds of pieces of gold and silver jewellery, ornaments, and golden nuggets that washed up on the shore.
Fisherman Yolman Lares, 25, also found a gold medallion with an image of the Virgin Mary on it.
There were unconfirmed reports that some had sold their discoveries for as much as $1,500, according to DNYUZ.
No one knows where the gold came from and how it ended up scattered along a few hundred feet of the narrow beach.
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Guaca is located on the Caribbean Sea, which has historically made fishing and fish processing the center of its economy. The industry has fallen on hard times as of late due to gasoline shortages, which served as a blow to the means by which many of the town’s residents made a living.
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Fishing villages struggling economically can be found around the world; fishing villages where gold begins washing ashore? Those are a bit more rare.
The gold’s origin remains a mystery, and Kurmanaev and Herrera write that it’s one that may never be solved. For some of those who discovered it, though, the gold’s origins are less important than its ability to keep them and their families fed during a difficult time.