He thinks Staten Island is a treasure island.
At 6 a.m. last Saturday, David Hager, 58, his wife Michelle, 51, and their two sons, Tyler, 21, and Ryan, 17, began digging in a tiny park in the forgotten borough.
Hager, who lives in Colorado, believes he has correctly deciphered clues from Byron Price’s 1982 book “The Secret: The Treasure Hunt” that point to the exact location of the loot buried on Staten Island.
“There were two things [in the book] “This is something nobody has been able to figure out,” Hager, a former geologist and science teacher who now runs a college planning service, told The Post. “We have it figured out perfectly. It’s supposed to be here.”
In the early 1980s, Price is said to have buried the barrels and keys in plexiglass cases in 12 North American cities. He wrote detailed clues about their locations in a book. Only three treasures have ever been found – in Chicago, Cleveland and Boston. It is widely believed that the loot is somewhere in the five boroughs, but its location remains unknown. Price died in a car accident on Long Island in 2005.
Hager and his family came from Denver to spend the holiday weekend digging. They brought along a battery-powered drill, a shovel and an underground camera.
If Hager finds the barrel and the key, he may be able to trade the key from the Price family fortune for a particular gemstone (a topaz, based on the clues), with an estimated value of $2,000.
The Hagers had to keep their excavation secret within the park: they did not have a permit to do so and were asked not to reveal exact names and locations.
When passersby asked her what she was doing, Michelle quietly replied, “I’m looking for my grandpa’s time capsule.”
Hager, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, counted his steps at various points and told his sons where to dig.
“I practiced in my backyard before coming here,” he says, “trying different tools and techniques.”
At first, the family used a detector with a camera to detect what appeared to be something they’d run into. Looking at the monitor, Hager said, “It looked like a plexiglass case.”
But unfortunately, it turned out to be a rock.
Undaunted, the family continued digging a narrow path about 30 feet long. Michelle Hager, the mother, dug the children “Team Hager.”
Five hours later, everyone wanted lunch, the drill’s batteries were dead, the screen on the basement camera was broken, there seemed to be holes everywhere, and as the Hager kids started digging with their hands, David admitted they needed a break.
“I’m heading to my Airbnb to recharge,” he announced.
The family dug again on Sunday and Monday but found nothing.
“I’ll be back,” he told The Post on Monday night, just before boarding a flight back to Colorado.
“We just didn’t have enough time. We’ll come back with more equipment and batteries and get ready to go again.”
