Buried Treasure in the Backyard

Metal detector? Check. Shovel? Check. Clay pot? Check. Fake Scroll? Check. Religious altar? Check. Gullible land owner? Ummmm.....

You have to give Javier Villamizar some credit. He combined the old gypsy curse scam with the gold brick hustle and threw in a little pigeon drop for good measure and came up with a heck of a con. He tried to convince a Florida land owner that a Spanish treasure was buried on an otherwise vacant lot. Not just ANY Spanish treasure, mind you, but a CURSED Spanish treasure, buried complete with instructions for removing the curse.

The scam would have netted Villamizar a cool $50K if the mark had bought it, but no such luck. Instead, Javier is facing incarceration and grand theft charges. Apparently he's been accused of similar charges in Colorado in the past. We can only hope that he wasn't using the same Spanish buried treasure angle around Mile High Stadium.