A man was baffled after finding a locked safe washed up on the beach - and was left stunned at what was inside.
Jace Tunnell was searching for sea turtles near Port Aransas, in the US state of Texas, when he made the puzzling discovery, which led him to believe he had found gold.
“I found the safe while doing beach surveys where we look for stranded and nesting sea turtles,” he said.
“I was excited that I might have found some secret documents, gold bars, or maybe some cash.
“I did roll the safe around end on end and didn't hear anything, so I thought it might be empty.
“But I also thought there could be something in there that got wet and it might be sticking to the walls of the safe.”
It was too heavy to lift by himself, but Jace was able to load it into his vehicle with some help from his son, Jack.
They needed reinforcements to open it, however.
Mr Tunnell, the director of the nearby Mission-Aransas nature reserve, said: “It took three grown men, including myself.
“It took about an hour to open using crow bars, sledgehammers, and an electric metal cutting saw.”
But there was something inside.
Jace hoped that whatever it was could benefit the Amos Rehabilitation Keep, a facility helping turtles and marine birds, run by the University of Texas at Austin, which also manages the reserve.
Yet it only left them with more questions.
Mr Tunnell, 49, said: “There was something inside and it was quite exciting to see something sitting in the safe as we slowly opened the door away from the safe.
“Unfortunately, it was only a drying packet of silica gel beads.
“My reaction was laughter.
“It was funny that we spent all that time and effort to open a safe for a packet of drying beads, but it was so exciting that it was worth every minute.”
Now the origins of the safe may never be known.
“That's the mystery,” he said.
“It could have been from a sinking ship, a hurricane that washed away a house, or a person dumping the safe into the river that then washed it into the ocean.”
He continued: “We find items washing up on our shores from all over the world because of the way the ocean currents work.
“In the Gulf of Mexico we have a loop current that comes up around the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and around Cuba before it goes back around the east coast of Florida.
“This creates eddies that push whatever is in the loop current up on our shores in Texas. So this safe could have come from anywhere.”
He added: “It's a good lesson about how the ocean currents work, and the force of mother nature to push a heavy safe up on the beach.
“The ocean is exciting and mysterious for so many reasons, including the opportunity to find a safe floating by.”
