La Paz County Sheriff Find Underwater Skeleton Tea Party
Location: Colorado River, La Paz, Arizona
Year Discovered: 2015
Est. Value: $50*
When the La Paz County Sheriff’s Department received a call regarding possible human remains in the Colorado River, they partnered up with the Buckskin Fire Department in Arizona. A diver went down to inspect with a video camera and discovered two skeletons having a tea party. Thankfully, the skeletons were false, and they were both sitting upright in lawn chairs. One sported aviators and a bib. The other was holding a sign that read “Dream in the River” and had the date August 16, 2014. Was this some sort of art installation? Have you thrown away your Halloween decorations? Is it some kind of shrine? We may never find out.
Atari’s “E.T.” Video Games Unearthed from New Mexico Landfill
Location: Alamogordo, New Mexico
Year Discovered: 2014
Est. Value: $5-$10 million*
This is a shocking narrative with many twists and turns. Atari learned in the fall of 1983 that its much-maligned E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial video game was a colossal flop. So Atari chose to deal with its excess inventory by covertly burying much of it in an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill. The “Atari Dump” became the stuff of urban legends because no one believed the E.T. game had been such a flop. That is, until an exploratory dig in Alamogordo in 2014 showed that the Atari Dump had been there all along. Atari’s game was so reviled that burying millions of copies in the New Mexico desert was the only way to avoid selling them.