Man buys you stressor hears noise inside sometimes there’s a lot more to things than what can be seen at first glance you might have encountered something or someone and thought you had a grasp of everything there was to that object or that individual but suddenly something might happen that can thwart your expectations or what you thought you knew and this is something that happens
Pretty often at yard sales why do people usually go to yard sales the answer is easy to find a diamond in the rough some valuable item that has gone unseen to discover something the worth of which has been invisible to other eyes but what if the worth of one of those items was miscalculated not only by the people who didn’t want it but also by the person who decided to buy it this is what happened to emile nodell
The protagonist of this story emile nodell aged 67 was a texas native and a retired marketing director on top of a u.s veteran since his retirement one of his favorite hobbies was scouting around estate sales and yard sales he had found a few bargains and had been surprised by the finding of a few rare items in his lifetime but he couldn’t expect what he would find on his next yard sale in missouri
Texas in all fairness after parking next to the yard and leaving his car emile didn’t expect to find anything out of the ordinary to him it just seemed like another run of the mill yard sale still even those were fun for him every time he went to one he ended up seeing something he liked enough to take it home sometimes he liked it as something useful at the house sometimes it was
Something that he could get a good price for and sometimes he just wanted a souvenir from the particular yard sale but this time was different that yard sale was organized by some real old-timer experienced company which meant that all items would be thoroughly examined and precisely priced in other words no diamonds in the rough or overlooked valuables were expected in this kind of yard sales usually what you see is what you get no more no less
But apparently some of the company’s employees forgot to take a second look at one particular item emil was strolling across the lines of items for sale and just as he expected he wasn’t seeing anything too unique there were some interesting and nice goods sure but nothing that he would call a bargain or nothing that he felt especially compelled to take home with him it was an old wooden dresser
It was made of wood with a white marble top with some beautifully carved drawers according to the appraisal it dated back to the 1890s it looked nice for sure but emil wanted to know if there was something more about the item that he hadn’t seen at first glance he decided to take a closer look he looked at the sides in the back of the dresser and he didn’t see anything special
Then he decided to take a look at the drawers there was nothing inside either apparently that was just what it was a beautiful and antique wooden dresser but there was something that emil had forgotten to check he asked about the price of the piece of furniture it was 100 however the price was 300 just two days ago
Apparently nobody wanted that item and the managers of the yard sale just wanted to get rid of it gladly emil thought he had found a bargain he bought the item and he started carrying it to his car that’s when he heard some strange unsettling noises coming from inside the dresser something was rattling in there he stopped to find out what that was
He laid the dresser on the floor and checked the drawers again there was nothing there just like the first time he checked he kept examining all the sides of the dresser to make sure he hadn’t missed anything and he found something unexpected there was a secret compartment at the base of the dresser it seemed specifically designed to hide something rather than just store it
His heart was racing as he opened that secret drawer when he finally saw what was inside he couldn’t believe his eyes it was a stash of very valuable and antique items gold coins historical artifacts from the civil war jewels personal mementos and letters that was a treasure not only was it worth multiple times what he had paid for the dresser but it was also a piece of history
Emil found himself in a dilemma what should he do about the secret precious stash he had only paid for an old dresser and he had ended up with a lot more but he was unsure of what to do with it the first thing he did was call an appraiser the total value of the stash was calculated to be around ten thousand dollars that was a lot of money
But he thought about the ethical side of the incident he had only paid for the old dresser and that’s what he thought he was taking home with him the managers of the yard had been clearly clueless about what was truly inside the dresser also some objects from the stash clearly would have some sentimental value to whoever owned it originally so he made a decision he would return the stash to whoever was
The original owner of the dresser and he would just keep the ladder after all it would have been unfair to follow the finders keeper’s policy in this situation i’m an old ex-marine and i tried to do the right thing emile explained later to the reporters that asked him about his story that same evening he took the stash back to the managers of the yard sale and informed them of his discovery
He also asked to be put in contact with whoever had sold them the dresser so their identity could be verified as the relative or relatives of whoever left the treasure there for their descendants finally someone appeared and rightly demonstrated that the stash belonged to him emile gave it back and took the dresser home glad to have followed his marine moral code regardless of temptation truly an example to follow.