Priceless antiquities

"Look at this. It's worthless - $10 from a vendor in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years, it becomes priceless." - Belloq, Raiders of the Lost Ark

The contents of the Accidental Duplex are far from 1,000 years old. All of that stuff is also far from priceless. However, a lot of these things are fascinating. The building is full of random surprises. None of these items are as sought after as the Ark of the Covenant, and the Accidental Duplex can be a bit like the hole the Ark came out of, but it is full with just about as many surprises. So far none of them have caused anyone's face to melt or head to explode.

However, it's fun to wonder how these random treasures ended up there. So I am starting a new section called Priceless Antiquities, which will profile all of the curious crap I am coming across in the Accidental Duplex. The first items are the game boards for Monopoly and Clue.



I found these among a pile of mostly tools near the Accidental Duplex's backdoor shortly after entering the building. There were no boxes or game pieces nearby, just a couple of warped pieces of cardboard for board games based on building up real-estate holdings and figuring out a mystery. Further proof that God has a sense of humor.

Suitcase full of drug money...

Everyone has a theory about what's inside the Accidental Duplex. These theories range from construction equipment (me) to a dead body (just about everybody else). My dad believes there is a suitcase full of drug money. My wife says it's much more likely there is a dead body.

Such musings didn't stop my dad from dreaming. He believed his suitcase-full-of-drug-money theory so much that he talked his way into coming along when I opened up the Accidental Duplex. In fact, when I told him I planned on opening it with a cop buddy of mine, dad suggested I not bring him along. My friend (a Detroit PD officer) would have to report the cash and turn it over it to the city, dad explained. When I suggested bringing along my sister-in-law's boyfriend (a former Marine sniper) my dad advised against it. We would have to cut him a share, too, he said.

I chuckled when dad told me this. My wife was ready to ban him from the Accidental Duplex. She pointed out that even if there was a suitcase full of drug money, it's highly unlikely its owner would not miss it. Drug dealers don't just write off loses like that because a couple of bald, middle-aged white guys decided to walk away with their suitcases full of drug money. It's more than likely that we would have met someone like this while trying to walk away with his suitcase full of drug money.



Unfortunately, there was nothing Hollywood about what we did find in the Accidental Duplex. It was literally filled with random crap. Four floors of stuff that most people wouldn't use a word like value to describe. We did find a couple of suitcases. Actually, we found two suitcases and four trunks, including an old U.S. Army footlocker.



There was no drug money. No money at all, much to my dad's disappointment. There were also no body parts, thankfully. Both suitcases and all four trunks had the same thing inside of them.