Mike Lopez says his sister was cleaning their grandparents’ attic recently when she discovered the box of curiosities
Also included in the box was a photograph of what is believed to be their great-grandparents on their wedding day
A Tampa antiques expert who examined the artifacts believes they actually date to the 1920s or 30s, but the hand’s origins remain a mystery
A brother and sister in Tampa have unearthed something startling in their grandparents’ attic: an old box containing what looks like a treasure map, old coins and a desiccated human hand.
Also secured with old copper wire in the box discovered by Mike Lopez and his sister Maria was an old photo of what he believes is his great-grandparents on their wedding day.
‘Maybe my great-grandparents were pirates,’ said Lopez, who recalls his grandfather Ernesto Lopez telling him tales of his father discovering the treasure of a mythical pirate named Jose Gaspar.
Pirate’s booty? A brother and sister in Tampa have unearthed something startling in their grandparents’ attic: an old box containing what looks like a treasure map, old coins and a desiccated human hand
Yarrr: ‘Maria came across it and once she told me she found a hand in a box. I was totally blown away,’ Mike Lopez said about the moment his sister found the strange box
Heirloom? Included in the box is a photo of what Mike believes are his great-grandparents on their wedding day
In addition to the coins, hand and photo, the wooden box contains a map of the area of Tampa’s Hillsborough River, which to this day plays backdrop to the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest named after the pirate so prominent in local lore.
‘Maria came across it and once she told me she found a hand in a box. I was totally blown away,’ Lopez told WTSP.
Unfortunately, an expert who looked at the box told Lopez and WFLA the objects are likely too new to have belonged to any Floridian pirates.
‘They’re a little thin to be Spanish Coins or old coins in general. Generally older coins were thicker,’ Rodney Kite-Powell, curator of the Tampa Bay History Center, said of the coins.
Kite-Powell also said the box and map were most likely from the 1920s or 1030s.
‘It’s fascinating, but I just don’t know what to make of it aside from the fact that it’s probably not Jose Gaspar’s hand, these probably aren’t Spanish coins,’ he told WFLA.
But where did the eerily lifelike hand, which sports a mysterious ring on one finger, come from?
‘I think it still looks real and the weirdest thing is the hand,’ said Lopez.
He said he and his sister are considering keeping the relics as part of their family’s history, whether they belonged to a pirate or not.
‘Either my great-grandfather made the best, most elaborate pirate hoax ever and never shared it with anyone or he really did find some treasure on the Hillsborough River. There’s really no way to know which is the case.’
Ghastly: A mysterious ring adorns the desiccated, apparently human, hand. Despite markings on the map suggesting it, an expert told Mike it’s unlikely a hand belonging to mythic Florida pirate Jose Gaspar
Unlikely: ‘It’s fascinating, but I just don’t know what to make of it aside from the fact that it’s probably not Jose Gaspar’s hand, these probably aren’t Spanish coins,’ said Rodney Kite-Powell, curator of the Tampa Bay History Center