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GIs Find $700M Treasure Chest -- U.S. Bills Turn Up in Abandoned Homes
By JONATHAN FOREMAN in Baghdad
The New York Post, April 19, 2003
Two Army sergeants looking for a chainsaw to cut down a tree next door
to their headquarters in Baghdad stumbled upon a king's ransom today.
They found a slew of steel boxes containing an estimated $700 million in
U.S. cash - all hidden in several small houses on a fancy estate in the
palace area of Iraq's capital.
The treasure trove was unearthed thanks to Staff Sgt. Kenneth Buff, who,
along with Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Van Ess, noticed a strange windowless
building that "didn't look right."
"Walls were built up in front of the doors and windows. So we thought
there must be something hidden there," said Buff, 43.
There was indeed something behind the walls - dozens of steel boxes,
along with several crystal vases.
When the soldiers opened one of the boxes, they found stacks of $100
bills bundled in $100,000 increments. Each box held $4 million.
Back out in the daylight, they saw another shack, opened it up - and
found 40 more boxes, also stuffed with hundreds. The total in the two
houses: $320 million.
Hours later, soldiers from the 4th Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment -
which led the main tank attack on Baghdad last week - searched more nearby
houses. They turned up an additional $380 million - bringing the Americans'
overall find in a single day to a staggering $700 million.
The abandoned houses are next to one that the troops have been using for
several days as a temporary base while they conduct missions throughout
Baghdad.
No one could explain where the money came from or even on whose property
it is - although the exclusive estate area housed senior Ba'ath Party
officers.
At the same time elsewhere in Baghdad, Marines were poised with machine
guns and tanks at the burned-out Central Bank - protecting $1 billion in
gold from robbers who had used rocket-propelled grenades in a failed bid to
break in.
As for as the $700 million in cold, hard cash, Maj. Kent Rideout
organized a team of soldiers to load the hoard onto a truck to be taken to
Baghdad International Airport, which is under U.S. control, for safekeeping.
"It says something about the ethics of the American soldier that he
would hand over all this when a single bundle is more than three times what
these men make in a year," Rideout told The Post.
"Each box has more money in it than I'll ever have in my entire life,"
said Spc. Steve Beaman.
"It makes you want to cry."
Many of his fellow soldiers loading the boxes felt the same way.
"Yesterday, I was herding lions," sighed Maj. Rideout, referring to
lions that were left starving at the Baghdad Zoo. "Today I'm moving
[millions of dollars]. There's never a dull day in the Army."