Most teenagers in their first week of a job hope to just sail through. For 18-year-old worker Kobe, it wasn’t that simple. On August 11, 2026, in East Flanders, Belgium, he uncovered a gold hoard worth nearly $10.5 million hidden inside a cellar wall.
The student was tasked with laying pipes alongside a colleague in a former brewery when they stumbled upon the spectacular find, reported Lefigaro. It was unassuming at first, concealed in ordinary plastic wrapping and deliberately bricked into the cellar wall rather than stored away in a safe or treasure chest. Even at first glance, they expected it to be just ordinary euros, not a stash of gold. Together, they discovered no fewer than 49 gold bars and roughly 4,000 coins
It is not every day that a summer job meant to earn a couple of bucks ends with finding a stash of gold coins, nuggets, and ingots, leaving the teenager understandably astounded. Still, instead of losing composure and keeping the gold for themselves, the duo informed their employer, and the police. Now comes the question, how did so much gold get there? Perhaps the answer lies in the “VA” initials on the wrought-iron gates. Theophilus Van Assche established his brewery on Van Langenhovestraat in 1899. While brewing ceased in 1970, the edifice bears the mark of Van Assche, and the family’s immense wealth is no secret. According to The Wall Street Journal, local historian and former Dendermonde mayor Piet Buyse believes the Van Assche family is the strongest candidate for having hidden the gold. For now, the gold is in a high-security federal government vault.
While the duo did the right thing and handed the gold over to authorities, people around the world are coming up with outlandish explanations for claiming it. Police officer Patrick Feys came across a person who claimed to remember hiding the treasure in a previous life and then forgetting about it for six decades. Another claimant says his Latvian grandfather once worked in Belgium and used to tell the family that he was extremely wealthy but had left his money hidden in a Belgian wall. As for Kobe, he probably shouldn’t start shopping for a Ferrari yet, but Belgian law does leave open the possibility of a finder’s reward. For now, it looks like the next couple of years will be dedicated to finding and waiting for the rightful owner, if one even exists.
