Many people would love to make a living watching TV, but one lucky (or smart) Netflix viewer could be in with a chance of hitting the jackpot if they watch its newest docuseries.
Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn's Treasure is a new three-parter about the real-life treasure hunt that erupted when American retiree Forrest Fenn hid over $1,000,000 worth of gold, jewels and artifacts somewhere in the Rocky Mountains and released a poem with hidden clues to its whereabouts.
People were arrested and died on the quest, but as the docuseries shows, they also found themselves on their voyage into nature. It's quite heartwarming, honestly! In the end, someone did find the treasure, and that's not a spoiler alert because he's one of the first people we meet in the show.
What's more of a surprise is that, within minutes of the series starting, a treasure hunter (a man named Justin Posey) admits that he's done something bizarre with his own treasure He's not splurged it on a yacht or a mansion or even a really big car. No, he's re-hidden it... and a viewer of the show could find it!
This isn't a hidden detail: after the first line of his interview, Posey stands up and walks off camera, before saying to someone off-screen:
"I wanted to let you know, I've hidden some clues in that interview setup; within all the spaces you guys have filmed in my house"
When asked for clarification, Posey specifies that he's hiding Forrest's treasure, and this immediately follows on from another interview subject stating that he knows the treasure has been hidden. Posey wasn't actually the man to find Forrest's treasure, but he seems to have acquired some of it.
After the introductory title screen, a disclaimer appears: "no one working on the production or distribution of this program has any knowledge of any purported buried or abandoned property or any supposed related clues, and does not encourage you to search for any hidden treasure(s). Seek - and find - at your own risk.".
That means, when you watch Gold & Greed and all of Posey's interviews, pay attention to the backdrops, because they'll show clues to where he's re-hidden the treasure!
Above you can see the usual layout of Posey's interviews, with the man sitting in front a spread of computer screens.
I'm no treasure hunter but you can already see a few potential clues: the locations in the screensavers, and perhaps the time of 5:25, and I'm sure smart people will notice a lot more. Through the series we also see Posey interact with his house: changing the clock, playing with a dog, and so on. Clues could be anywhere!
More information is provided from the 44-minute mark in the final episode of the show, where Posey describes his challenge in more detail. He explains how he's hidden a 60lb chest containing gold bars, rubies, sapphires, gold coins, a meteorite and some of Forrest's treasure somewhere in the American west. He reiterates that his segments of the show have had hints sprinkled throughout, commenting "watch and listen closely" implying that his language, not just his house, contains clues.
Posey ends with a quote from Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Caroll: "In the end, we only regret the changes we didn't take" which is probably a clue in itself too.
A treasure hunt for Justin Posey's treasure chest isn't plausible to everyone, given that it's hidden in America, and that it took years for the first treasure to be found. However the rest of the series is a testament to how these hunts are about the journey, not the destination, and perhaps Posey knows this more than anyone.
As a UK-based writer who pulls hair at cryptic crosswords, much less cryptic treasure hunts, I'm ruling myself out of the hunt already, but perhaps we'll soon hear that someone has found Justin Posey's treasure. It could even be someone who heard of the hunt from this news story!
Do pay attention to the final disclaimer at the end of the series, though, as it warns of some of the dangers of this quest.
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