Otto Reinig Finds Gold

Published 2:33 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

It is seldom that a resident of a town as small

as Snoqualmie rates a banner head across six columns of

a metropolitan daily, but this is the unusual publicity

which Otto Reinig, popular postmaster of that town, was

accorded in the Seattle Star last Friday when the story

of the $1700 in gold left at his door by someone

unknown, amazed not only the people of his home

community, but the state at large.

Mr. Reinig found the sack containing the gold on

his veranda as he left for the office Friday morning. No

clue as to the identity of the owner was left, so he

immediately took the valuable package to Seattle and turned

it over the Federal Reserve Bank. A search was at

once begun for the person to whom it belongs.

Investigators considered two possibilities: That

the money was left by some misinformed person who

feared that he would be prosecuted for possession of gold,

or that the money had been stolen and then discarded

when the burglar repented or feared that he would be

caught. Bank officials say no one can be prosecuted for

having gold.

The treasure still belongs to the owner, whoever

he or she may be, but he must prove his identity to the

satisfaction of the Federal Reserve Bank, and of Mr.

Reinig, before his claim will be allowed and nice, new

greenbacks given to him in place of the gold.

To date no one has appeared to claim the “poke,”

and while at first it was feared a number of imposters

might bother the bank and Mr. Reinig, trying to prove

they were the parties who left the hoard in its most

unusual place, when it was pointed out how difficult it would

be for such persons to substantiate their statements,

the chances for their appearance have become much

less likely.

In order to prove ownership of the gold the

following facts must be verified:

1 _The claimant must know what sort of outer

covering it had, whether bag, sack or box.

2 _ He must know whether it was in coins or in bars.

Or a mixture. He must know whether it was wrapped

or unwrapped.

3 _ He must know, if it was in coin, what

denominations were included, and how much of each.

It is pretty well understood that any imposter

who tries to obtain the gold will end up in the town jail.

The federal reserve officials are not even

corroborating the report that the gold amounted to $1700. In

fact, it may be greatly more.