While its quite here on the home front and I'm stuck in bed with the flu!
I would like to share a story with you all ,About the items that are hidden in old junk and Antiques sometimes.

I use to run a Antique and furniture business. I did it for years and I still dabble in it from time to time now.
There was a stage when Antiques were in high demand ,But then as Time moved on ,The Antique market died. Mainly because the people that collect them are older folk and they have all their Antiques or are now down sizing so what happened in the Antique trade was that Antiques became unfashionable and a Ceder set of draws I would normally sell for 2500 dropped to 400 and it would sit around for months .or maybe not sell at all.

There were now new kids on the block now .A new generation that had no interest in tradtional Antiques.
It was all mid century items in high demand now , from Eames Era chairs ,danish lounges , 50s and 60s parkers items , so I moved into that style and it boomed. I was selling mid century items for 10 times more money than any Antiques and thats where the market still stands today.
A good Featherstone 50s chair will sell for 10k and Those 60s parkers will sell for 3500 a set.

So I was happy to leave the dark world of Antiques and to be selling mid century bright and happy furniture . Its much more fun and. I was very at home running a mid century furniture bussness .

Now to get stock I would travel all over the country buying stock left right and center, Auctions, country clearance, deceased estate, street throw outs ,

One day I buy this old 1960s sideboard and as I loaded it into my truck I cursed myself for buying it because it had some damage to the veneer and I already had tons of peices in the workshop waiting for me to re-finish them.
But money is money and I knew It would be sold again within two weeks .Its a very fast turn around , not like Antiques.

So I arrived back home from the trip and start unloading all my furniture and items from the truck and as I lift the sjdeboard out of the truck, I see a large Envelope taped too the bottom of the sideboard ! So I tear it open and in side it was a large amount of Italian Government Bonds dating back to 1921.
Knowing nothing about this type of thing! I Took them to the Commonwealth Bank and told the manager the story of how I ended up with them.
I left them with him so he could make some inquiries about them .

The next day the Bank Manager phones me up , and said , Peter those Bonds are worth a large some of money ,But the only person that can cash them is the name on the Bond or sometimes next of Kin . So I asked how much are these Bonds worth and he said about 700k in Australian dollars !,,
Oh for Gods sakes I thought !!!. I knew that the owner of that sideboard had died ,because I was informed of that the day I bought it. Well such is life ! I did make some inquires trying to find any Kin ,But all roads were dead ends. I still have them in a box somewhere, I could not bring myself to throw them out somehow.
I have found other things hidden in furniture as well , postcards, photos, and once a home made book of four leaf clovers.
But nothing ever as grand as those Bonds.
All the best pete

The thing that poops me off the most in the stories about those who find ten grand in old paper banknotes in a coat pocket at Vinnies or the Salvos. What's worse is that they hand the money in!

Well these Bonds are worthless.
Only the original owner can cash them and he' dead.
But I often wonder why did he have such a large amount of bonds hidden and not cash them in?thats a huge amout of money to have just laying around the place

The Antique market died. Mainly because the people that collect them are older folk

I know a lot of old people that ran run-down shops gave it away when the GST came in, because they didn't have a computer and couldn't comply with the reporting requirements.

Gst and Antiques? ..?
GST had no impact on the Antiques.
On the fall of the hammer yes.
The best Antiques dealers dont have a shop ,The money is made from moving items too where they are sought after.like a middle man.
Thats how the best Dealers do it.

I knew a few small operators who disappeared at GST time because they did not want to apply for an ABN, the reason for that being that they dealt only in cash and were total strangers to the ATO.

One such person used to operate out of the back of an industrial property in Brookvale where he did boat repairs. He probably could have continued without an ABN but felt that the heat was on. It was a pity because he was a wizard with the TIG on aluminium.

Another ran a small turning and milling workshop, also in Brookvale and also strictly cash.

Did you hear the recent news story about an old TV that was part of a consignment to a thrift store in Canada was found to have $100k cash stashed in it? The money was returned to the absent minded donors..

The best I've ever done was working on an old traded-in clothes dryer from the 1960s that had - for decades - coins falling from pockets through the gaps to inside its base. It was like Pokie payout!

What's worse is that they hand the money in!

So would I. If the cops can't find an owner after a reasonable period of time it will usually be handed back to you.

As John Lennon wrote: Instant karma's gonna get you.

3 months it is.
If not claimed in 3 months than it is returne to you. I know this to be a fact because the police gave me a motorcycle I found in the bush after 3 months.
But if you buy a radio and its full of drugs and you phone the cops ,they take the radio too in case it goes to court.
In my case I did not have to make the decision because the bonds are worthless and the owner is dead

On the subject of taking away personal property as evidence and getting it back, a friend of mine's car was stolen at the end of November last. The cops found it two days later -- with the thieves asleep inside it! -- but held it for DNA and fingerprinting because the gang had committed a series of armed crimes from Bondi to St Marys. As they had crossed a number of police regions during their spree, it was very frustrating trying to get an idea of when the car might be returned. Eventually, at 3.30pm on the Friday before Christmas she got a call at work from the holding yard to come and get it before 5pm or holding charges would start to accrue. Needless to say it spent the Christmas New Year break still in captivity and accruing a holding fee of $35 (or thereabouts) per day.

But if you buy a radio and its full of drugs and you phone the cops ,they take the radio too in case it goes to court.

This just reminded me of something - I did used to keep a couple of spare $50 notes inside a HMV table radio I have. Hard to think that 25 years ago I had a collection of about 30 radios but no money box.

Back in the early 80's a guy who worked for us came to work with a bag of white powder. About 1kg of it.

Apparently he'd been woken the night before by a seachlight-equipped helicopter flying over his house. In the morning, he found said bag of white powder on the back lawn.

So we did some tests:

* Doesn't dissolve in water
* Melts to a brown liquid when heated.

Hmm! We suggested he take it to the police. Next day, we asked him what he did with it:

:"Flushed it down the toilet!"

What would you have done?

PS. He moved house not long after that!

I would of handed it over to police

1/ It now makes him look like the guilty party.

2/ The Dealers are looking for it and they are not going to believe that toilet flush job!
They will want their stuff or the money back or else.

He was silly to not be straight up front about it.
The other day I went house hunting because I'm looking too move house.
I found this place in the city I liked very much,,But there was this strange building in the street with no name on it ??，So I ran a check on it with google and sure enough it was a rehabilitation center for long term gaol birds that also had long term drug addiction !!

Hmmm well after driving down the street at night and seeing the scumbags hanging around the street ,I gave the house a big skip!
I have
3 daughters and their not going anywhere near that world while I'm still standing !

Given what was presumably a police helicopter the night before, I wouldn't have touched it, but called the police instead.

Moving house would have been on the cards, too.

Well I can tell you right now that a Judge looks at things in a completely differant Mannor than the rest of us and would say that the guy had alternative motives for taking it too work in the first place.
Possession! just for starters!