FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mass. (WBZ) – A meteorologist used his expertise to find a $26,000 gold statue that was hidden in the Massachusetts woods as part of a real-life treasure hunt.
Video game developers Jason Rohrer and Tom Bailey created Project Skydrop, a treasure hunt across the northeast that offered participants daily clues to zero in on the prize. The New Hampshire natives didn’t expect anyone to win so soon, but they announced last Tuesday evening that someone had indeed found the hidden gold statue worth $26,000.
The lucky winner is Dan Leonard, a senior meteorologist with The Weather Company, and it’s that weather expertise that just may have given him a leg up on the competition.
The treasure hunt’s creators had a webcam on the statue that showed the weather and temperature, allowing Leonard to hone in on a 20-to-30-mile radius quickly.
“I was able to triangulate a lot of what we call mesonet stations, which is basically small weather stations that are owned by individual people,” Leonard said. “Then, I started to get a sense of what area really seems to be lining up nicely with the temperatures I’m seeing on the web camera.”
Once Leonard narrowed the window to an area in Franklin County, Massachusetts, he set out on foot to find the statue. At first, he passed it, and it was only due to recognizing a tree from the camera that he finally found it.
“The leaves on the ground absolutely perfectly masked the trophy,” Leonard said. “I probably was within six inches of it and didn’t know it.”
Markings on the statue contain the code to a much bigger prize: a bounty of more than $87,000 in a bitcoin purse. The money comes from premium entry fees to the contest.
Original reports to the game creators said that Leonard didn’t even want the money but just the statue. The meteorologist says that’s not entirely true but admits the money was a secondary consideration for him.
“There has been a lot of conspiracy theories associated with this. Somehow, somebody posted that I wasn’t in this for the money. I don’t know where that came from exactly,” Leonard said. “Of course, I am not going to turn down $80,000.”
The code to access the money is still in play, but Leonard believes he and his wife are close to solving it. He plans to use the prize for his 1-year-old son’s future college tuition, and the rest he will donate to wildlife and nature conservation charities.
The game creators say they’re currently in talks to do similar projects and possibly a reality show.
Copyright 2024 WBZ via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.