Man finds treasure worth up to $400k in seafood dinner

A lucky Thai policeman has found a rare Melo pearl while eating seafood for dinner with his wife.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Phongsakorn Chantana bought a bag of sea snails to grill at home with his wife in Buriram province on April 16.

While the couple was eating, the husband bit into something round and hard while chewing on the snail.

Phongsakorn spat out the object but he said he was confused when he saw a pearl the size of a corn seed. He showed it to his wife and realised it might be a rare pearl.

Officer Phongsakorn said he and his wife were hopeful that the pearl was a genuine Melo but they were planning to take it to a nearby university for it to be examined and confirmed.

“We have a strong feeling that it could be a Melo pearl but it’s smaller than the ones we’ve seen previously so we want to be sure,” he said.

“We will send the pearl to be examined and if it is actually a Melo pearl, we will be delighted. I think we’ll keep it for good luck.”

The couple is currently looking for an institution that could check the authenticity of their find and plan to discuss the possibility of selling it later.

On February, trucker Monthian Jansuk found a similar pearl in Chonburi province.

A struggling fisherman also discovered a Melo pearl, one of the most expensive in the world, on a Thailand beach in January. 

Hatchai Niyomdecha, 37, was picking up oyster shells with his family when they stumbled upon the rare shell in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.

When he gave the shells to his father to clean, he found an orange Melo pearl that was slightly bigger than a 20 cent coin.

It is believed the pearl could be worth up to $437,000.

Melo pearls range from orange to tan to brown in colour – with orange being the most expensive shade.

They are usually found in South China Sea and Andaman Sea off the coast of Burma and are produced by predatory sea snails called Volutidae.

Source: Y!Australia