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Hi, my name is Jim Matthews. I own the house, Brownstone in Brooklyn. For many years, one day two guys came to my door and asked if they could dig in our backyard, which is a very strange request.

I think they did. In fact, what they unearthed several feet down at the rear end of our backyard was an old latrine from the days when plumbing wasn't available in the house, with an old 150-year-old house.

And digging down to the latrine, what they discovered was that glass bottles down there. Over the years, the glass bottles became covered with a kind of a glaze, a kind of a shimmery, iridescent glaze.

They gave us a couple bottles, but took the ones they found. And all they went into the day, and I never saw them again.

I'm Sarah Weiman, and this is Alice Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we're going to unearth a treasure in Jim Matthews' literal backyard, under layers of ash and trash and some century-old poop, and will meet the mysterious men who dug it all up.

Who were they, and why did they do it? That is after this.

So I should start by saying, just to add another layer of mystique to this story, there is a lot Jim Matthews does not remember about the day those two guys showed up and turned his backyard into an archeological dig.

I'm sorry. I'm 80 years old.

The question is, will I live to the end of this conversation?

But here is what we do know. Jim Matthews moved into a Brooklyn brownstone in 1977. It was one of those historic townhouses, long and narrow, with a flat roof and a steep set of stairs leading up to the porch.

The house was more than 100 years old, and he and his wife had thrown themselves into renovating and restoring it.

And one Saturday, two strange men knocked on his front door.

They were a toll and slender, I recall, and there were big guys, and I'm not a big guy, and I was a little intimidated.

Nevertheless, they began to ask me if they could dig in my backyard, which is, of course, not something that happens every day, so I was a little alarmed.

Anyhow, turns out the guys are completely legit. They're treasure hunters, and that becomes clear.

And they're telling me that I have treasure in my backyard. That was exciting.

The treasure hunters carried a bag of tools and a long metal rod through Jim's house into the backyard.

They sank one end of that rod into the dirt, probing around for something.

And in the very back corner of Jim's yard, in the middle of a flower bed, they found what they were looking for.

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