MIAMI (AP) - Police hit paydirt Friday, digging up 3.6 million nickels that disappeared along with a trucker who was supposed to deliver them to the Federal Reserve Bank in New Orleans. Authorities found the $180,000 in coins buried in a 4-foot hole in the back yard of a suburban Miami home. The nickels, still stored in their Federal Reserve bags, were in a wooden box, covered with a plastic tarp. Investigators would not say how they knew the coins were there, and gave no information on the owner of the house. They continued searching for the trucker, Angel Ricardo Mendoza, who disappeared in December after picking up the coins in New Jersey and setting out on the 1,100-mile trip. His rig was found empty Dec. 21 at a truck stop in Fort Pierce, Fla. i may be away for a while
According to other reports, the cops were looking for (and found) marijuana plants, and came across the nickles by accident.
