A PLUMBER struck gold when he discovered treasure worth millions in a buried chest that other workers ignored.
The lucky tradesman stumbled across a huge stash of pure gold coins worth £2 million in a metal box beneath a cellar in Vienna, Austria.
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The first clue was a mysterious rope sticking out of the basement floor of the villa he was renovating in the Penzing area of the capital.
When the plumber, who has not been named, could not pull the rope out, he grabbed a shovel.
After chipping away the concrete he found a rusty metal box and prised it open.
Inside he discovered 30kg of gold coins stamped with pictures of Mozart, the famous Austrian composer.
read more on shocking finds
The previous day another builder had been working in the cellar and noticed the rope but ignored it – agonisingly missing out on a share of the plunder.
Other oblivious builders working in the basement also went home empty-handed.
The curious plumber, however, will be rewarded with a generous chunk of the coins’ value.
In Austria, finds like this are equally divided between the finder and the property owner – meaning the workman could get a £1million payout.
The plumber was gobsmacked by his luck.
Armin, an old friend of the builder who missed out on the treasure, told the incredible story on a German talk show.
He told Heute presenters: “Something like this is really unbelievable.
“From time to time you might find a few coins, but such a discovery is fantastic.”
It is thought the coins were buried during the Second World War when wealthy Europeans hid their valuables.
X MARKS THE SPOT
The plumber might be the luckiest man in Austria, but others around the world have made similar jackpot finds recently.
A scuba diver in the Mediterranean swam into a vast stash of 30,000 ancient coins from almost 2,000 years ago.
The submerged treasure was worth around £2.5million, but the honest diver turned them over to the Italian authorities.
In another staggering discovery, a collector of military vehicles in Northamptonshire found £2 million worth of gold bars in an Iraqi tank he bought on eBay.
He filmed himself prising open the diesel tank in case he found munitions and needed to show bomb disposal crews.
Instead, he pulled out a load of 5kg gold bars.
He too handed the goods over to the authorities but admitted earlier this year he wishes he had not.
He told MailOnline: “I regret handing it in. I should have at least got a finders’ fee for it but I got absolutely nothing.”
