Dentist leads Tongan police to sunken ship
- On 17/02/2010
- In Illegal Recoveries
From New Tang Dynasty Television
What does a shipwreck and dentistry have in common ?
It's a riddle that's just been unraveled by Tonga police. Suspicions were aroused when people began turning up to this dental practice with lumps of gold to be melted.
[Teisi Taimani, Dental Surgery Assistant]:
"From last year to this year many people were coming in with it. The end of each side, you see it's like it's gold there, because its shiny on the edge where they cut it."
The pieces being brought in were mostly too big to be melted. Police issued search warrants for five suspects.
[Chris Kelley, Tongan Police Commander]:
"The addresses yielded items and objects as well as the quantity of ammunition which we were also very interested in."
The recovered booty led authorities to a previously unknown shipwreck off the Tonga coast. Four people, including the older man seen here, have been charged with taking items from a sunken vessel.
[Chris Kelley, Tongan Police Commander]:
"Shipwrecks within the territorial waters are government property."
But all that glitters is not necessarily gold - tests are yet to determine whether the yellow metal is the real thing.
