Soldiers of fortune
Friends buy Iraqi tank on eBay and find £2m in gold bars inside
WHEN they bought an old Iraqi army tank on eBay for £30,000, military buffs Nick Mead and Todd Chamberlain hoped it might have a hidden surprise.
The pair half-expected to find a cache of weapons in the Chinese-built vehicle, so filmed themselves as they searched its fuel container.
To their astonishment, what they pulled out were not a few rusty guns... but shiny gold bars worth an estimated £2million.
On the video, mechanic Mr Chamberlain is heard saying as he begins the inspection: ‘Well, it’s not guns that’s for sure.’
Mr Mead, 55, who runs military vehicle specialists Tanks-A-Lot in Helmdon, Northamptonshire, says: ‘Is that gold? Oh God, that’s about five or six kilos. See how many there are.
‘What are we going to do with them? What do you reckon they’re worth? Where did they come from? It could be Kuwaiti or Iraqi. How many more are there? This is better than having puppies! Incredible.’
The five gold bars, each weighing
‘Joking what we’d do with the money’
27lb, are thought to have been looted by Iraqi soldiers during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait that triggered the Gulf War. They would have hidden the bullion in the tank but before they could remove it the vehicle was captured and shipped to Britain.
Mr Mead and Mr Chamberlain have handed the ingots to police while officers investigate whether they can be matched to any bullion stolen in Kuwait at the time.
The pair filmed their search of the tank in case they found munitions and needed to show evidence to bomb disposal crews.
‘We didn’t know what to do,’ Mr Chamberlain said. ‘ You can’t exactly take five gold bullion bars down to Cash Converters without questions being asked, so we called the police.’
Mr Mead said: ‘ We know it is definitely an Iraqi tank and our theory is the gold is from Kuwait but we don’t know. When we found it, we were all laughing and joking and deciding what we were going to spend the money on.
‘My sister wanted a Land Rover and I would buy a Rolls Royce Phantom and chop the back off to make a pick-up truck.’ Mr Mead said he was not sure what would happen to the gold or whether he would at least be in line to receive a finder’s fee.
‘The chances of us keeping it are very slim,’ he said. ‘I’ve had quite a few strange phone calls. I got a call from one person claiming to be a colonel in the British Army saying it was his.
‘It’s really good fun to have found it. It certainly is interesting.’
The exact history of the T-54 tank, a Chinese copy of a Russian design built in the early 1980s, is unknown. It had been restored by previous owner Joe Hewes, 23, who replaced its tracks and fixed the engine without finding the gold. He traded it to Mr Mead in exchange for an Army lorry and an Abbot self-propelled gun, together worth £30,000.
Mr Mead, who has a collection of 150 military vehicles, said: ‘I always keep an eye on military vehicles on eBay. It is unusual to get one of these now, they range from around £10k to £60k. I did well buying it for £30k.’
Northamptonshire Police said they could not comment ‘for operational reasons’.