This forum needs a eyeroll emote. No one's finding drugs; the police probably already sweeped the place with dogs like CZoe said and no cares about a bunch of destroyed Golf carts.

 

Just so you know, I totally ignored this thread because I couldn't see what was inside the game and nobody explicitly mentioned it. I thought it was Pop Tarts. I only know about it now because I saw a Facebook post about to Kotaku article which specifically mentioned drugs in the title. You should be more descriptive with your post titles.

The thread was created before the packets were cut/looked in. It was definitely premature to mention “drugs” when I hadn’t even looked in the packets. I didn’t want to edit the OP to preserve the timeline integrity for documentation. That was written literally moments after opening the cartridge. It was posted in Finder’s Keepers while expressing doubt that I’ll be able to “keep” whatever it is. Regardless, Finder’s Keepers was still the most appropriate forum.

I understand your frustration, but this thread was less about describing the whole story up-front and more about inviting you along for the ride/discovery as we all figured it out together.

I’ve had a few more people reach out to me to confirm that it is heroin but I still have to take them at their word. Police probably aren’t going to say anything more to us about it, at least not until they’ve completed the investigation. Since the investigation is being handled by a department we have never spoken with, that probably means “never.”

One of the people reaching out to me went as far as describing the difference between European-produced heroin and other heroin generally found on the streets in the USA. He described the coarse sand-like texture and brownish color as European heroin.
  The plot thickens.  


 

Local newspaper. You're now world famous

If you are willing to take a unkown substance and inject it in your body you deserve to die. I don't think I would have called the police I would have dug a nice big hole and buried it forever. 
 

That's awesome, if you have the opportunity to purchase a second newspaper with this in it, I would like to purchase it from you, for preservations sake

editL  And being from Switzerland, if any German language paper picked it up, I'd love to grab one of those as well, much better language than French  

I can certainly try get another one. Dunno if I'll be able to find one (they're free newspapers and it's harder to come across them in the evening since people take them all in the morning) EDIT: Got one. PM me if you want it but I can def send it to you for the price of shipping.
Dunno about German newspapers either but since I'll be taking a train that goes to the German part of the country tonight I'll check if there are any laying around.

Is this the same news organization?
https://www.facebook.com/JEmmettT...
Wish I knew what they were saying. They definitely pointed out how fishy it was that it happened on April 1st... by litterally zooming in on the date and having an animated fish swim by. LOL!  

Looks like they followed up with my proof though.

^^^ Anyone bothered to estimate the street value, yet?

Most of the news sites are just running with the "easily five figures" estimate that was shared with me via PM but we'd have to know more specifically what kind of heroin it is for a better estimate. With orders of magnitude difference between heroin and fentanyl and then orders of magnitude difference between fentanyl and carfentanyl, I imagine that the potential value is all over the map without that detail. Heck, carfentanyl wouldn't even have a street value on its own because it's too strong (would be cut with something else).

Anyway, tomorrow is tax day, so maybe I’d rather not know so I don’t have to claim it on next year’s taxes.   After all, I didn’t get a receipt from the police to itemize it as a charitable donation.

Wow, I did not know that was a thing! That'd be an interesting conversation with your accountant.
 

I'm sure there is some exception but the IRS is notorious for insisting, in writing, that you must report illegal income as well.  

Czroe, you have no "illegal" income unless you found more of it you didn't tell us about and sold it. You gave it to the cops so your income from the illicit goods is zero. You could however declare a loss on the dollar value of your purchase seeing it was confiscated by the police though.  

In other thoughts, when people dealing in illicit trade routinely make large cash deposits to a bank account, the IRS is alerted and expects an explanation as to where the money comes from. Are you an entrepreneur? Do you run your own business? If so, you should be recording your business related earnings and expenditures. If you lie to them about a fake business, they may want to see proof.

This is why most mobsters run some sort of side business as a front to hide illegal activity. They have a storefront or restaurant in the front, with shady dealings in the back. Doesn't matter if the side business gets a single customer or fifty. Typically it's not something you advertise. A random customer wanders in, you serve them and bid them on their way. A business ledger is drafted for the side business and presented for tax considerations, which satisfy the irs and they pretty much leave you alone.

LOL! There’s a LOT I don’t tell you guys.   J/K

Yeah, I was joking about owing the IRS but you always hear about people getting lucky with non-cash rewards and then ending up owing the IRS. Like, some lucky dude catches the game-winning World Series ball from a 9th-inning homer that turned the tables and then, suddenly, the man owes the IRS a ton of money!

I recall being asked about "found" money in tax questionaries in the past and we all know how the IRS feels about illegal funds, prizes, and non-cash property. If you're hinting at our computer and console repair/upgrade efforts, I'm still just working my regular job and filing my regular taxes. I help my brother with the work but I don't handle payment or anything and it doesn't touch my bank account so that's his to declare. It pays his half of the rent so let's just say that I get compensated by having a roof over my head.   Besides, we've only run up debt so far (tooling up and building a workshop/lab isn't cheap).

I read up on it yesterday, after CZroe's post, and "found" stuff constitutes a fair-market-value gain when you find it, even if it isn't cash and even if you don't sell it.

So there is some theoretical situation in which if he had kept the drugs, he would owe taxes on the FMV.

 

Translation:

Drug in NES cartridges

UNITED STATES Retrogaming fan Julian Turner recently made an amazing discovery after buying two antique Nintendo game cartridges, "Rollergames" and "Golf", from a flea market in Georgia. Realizing that they were heavier than usual, he opened them up. He then realized that they each contained two packets of drugs, heroin, probably dating back several decades. He delivered his finds to the police.

[Image]

These old video games hid a funny suprise. - YOUTUBE

 

By the way,

You guys are on YAHOO!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/brothe...

Can't wait for Pat and Ian to do a segment.  

Thanks! Care to translate this one?
https://www.facebook.com/JEmmettTurner/posts/1774125359292436
I’m particularly interested to hear what they say after calling out the “fishy” date.  
 

In French-speaking countries, we call April Fools "April Fish" as we have a tradition of sticking paper fish on people's backs, so the fish indicates a possible april fools'  
 

What? Seriously?! I thought for sure they were calling it “fishy.” You’re not trying to fool me now, are you?  
  Thanks!

The Jeremy Roth guy from CNN wasn’t lying either, though I don’t think it’s aired on CNN or HLN or anything like that:
http://www.wwlp.com/world/video-games-stuffed-with-suspected...

My coworker says he saw it on Fox 5 Atlanta last night and someone in the DC area said he saw it on his local news over the weekend. WGN Chicago (well, nationwide, since they are a SuperStation) has it on their site but I don’t know if they aired it:
http://wgntv.com/2018/04/16/drugs-found-inside-video-game-ca...  

 

It's real  
https://www.francetravelguide.com...

I reached out to them since there are a few incorrect details in most articles and I thought they might want to hear it from the horse’s mouth. No response yet.  
  Ha ha! The more we know, right?  

I took french classes in high school and our teacher had us do a surprise test, she was visibly upset, she proceeds to give us instructions and basically she made us draw a fish lol, of course it was April's fool day, or poisson d'avril more exactly, I had totally forgotten about that