December 08, 2021

Greetings fellow Bizarros:

This kind of thing just doesn't happen in America (outside of Nicolas Cage movies). Then again, if an American were to stumble across a fortune in jewels while hiking in the mountains he or she would probably be smart enough to keep it to themselves.

A mountaineer who discovered a trove of rubies, emeralds and sapphires eight years ago at the site of a 50-year-old plane crash can keep a share of the jewels, it was announced this week.

"The stones have been shared this week" equally in two lots, Chamonix Mayor Eric Fournier said.

The climber discovered the jewels on a glacier at France's Mont Blanc in 2013, which were the remnants of two Air India planes that crashed into Mont Blanc in 1950 and 1966, respectively. According to France 24, authorities believe the jewels were from the 1966 crash, which was traveling from Mumbai to New York.

The Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Council said the climber found the cache of emeralds and sapphires on Mont Blanc in 2013, and a years-long search for the original owners or relatives of the owners came up empty.

Each lot has been valued at about 150,000 euros or $169,000. It hasn't been stated who the other lot is going to be allocated to.

Bizarrely,
Lewis

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Questions? Comments? Email: lewis@gophercentral.com

Mmm... tastes piney

A Milwaukee brewery is celebrating the holiday season with an extra-festive beer made using spruce from the city's official Christmas tree. Black Husky Brewery, which opened in 2016, announced that its latest brew, Tree Sproose, features spruce from the Milwaukee's Christmas tree. "I looked at the tree and I said 'I think that's a spruce tree, and I wonder if I could get a couple of branches of that,'" co-owner Tim Eichinger said. Katie Major and Mike Connell, the couple who donated the city's tree, participated in the bottling, alongside brewery employees and personnel from the Department of Public Works Forestry Services. Eichinger said a portion of sales from the 9.9% alcohol-by-volume brew will help support the Milwaukee Urban Forestry Fund.

Amen and pass the plate

A plumber working at Joel Osteen's mega-church in Houston found a large amount of money hidden inside a wall seven years after $600,000 was reported stolen during a break-in. The plumber, who identified himself only as Justin, called into a morning show to recount how he found envelopes full of cash and checks inside a wall while doing work at the Lakewood Church, which is led by Osteen and his wife, Victoria. "There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile," the plumber said. "We went to go remove the toilet, and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall, and I was like 'Oh wow.'" The discovery comes after about $600,000 was reported stolen during a break-in at the church in March 2014.