A treasure chest filled with gold and jewels worth millions, could soon belong to a Polk County man.
Jerry Dimanche isn’t your average treasure hunter. In fact, the closest he’s ever come to hidden treasure is with a metal detector on the beach, but he’s convinced he’s going to find a hidden treasure people from all over the world have tried to find.
“I’ve found a lot of, no gold coins. Maybe a bracelet that was silver,” Dimanche said.
Now he’s setting his sights on a bigger treasure.
The treasure is a 40-pound chest filled with gold nuggets, coins and jewels, worth millions of dollars. New Mexico multi-millionaire, Forrest Fenn says he hid it somewhere in the western United States.
“He actually tells you the city and he gives you the coordinates. He wants you to find it, he makes it very easy,” said Dimanche.
Dimanche may think the clues Fenn gives in this poem are easy:
“He says start where warm waters halt, and a lot of people take it as far as the Gulf of Mexico where warm water leads to something,” Dimanche said. "But for the past three years no one has been able to figure it out. People are still decoding a one-page poem. I figured it out.”
And he’s already figured out what he’ll do once he finds the treasure.
“I’m running for president with that money. You can be king,” said Dimanche.
Before Dimanche claims the throne, he has to find the chest first.
He says he’s heading out by bus on Monday, fully prepared to return a rich man.
The 82-year-old multi-millionaire who hid the treasure says he did it because he was dying from cancer. He’s now cancer free but he still wanted to leave the treasure for people to find.