Warning: Metaphor at work

This tale of a lust for gold is a fable for our times. From Jason Newell of the San Bernadino County Sun:

Gold dig gets 'out of hand'

Henry Mora began to realize his search for buried treasure was getting "totally out of hand'' around the time a hole in his front yard had grown deep enough to swallow 10 men. [...]

"Once we started finding gold dust, we just got carried away," Mora said Wednesday, a day after Montclair officials fenced off his 60-foot-deep hole at 4307 Granada St. and ordered an end to the digging. "Before you know it, we're down there digging like 14 days, and we're at 60 feet. It was getting totally out of hand. I knew that."

Darn that faulty metal detector. It said finding gold would be a slam dunk.

Once the hole reached about 25 feet, Mora's ladder wouldn't extend any deeper. The men dug sideways a bit, then down again, making a shelf for the first ladder, and room for another to lead them deeper still.

All the while, the metal detector continued to hint that they were getting closer.

"It was still beeping, and that just gave me the idea to keep digging," Mora said. "I think it's a normal human reaction, especially when you think there might be gold down there."

And especially when you ignore countervailing evidence - like the absence of what you're looking for. Fortunately, an observer who was considerably more reality-based than Mora took a hand.

But after seeing the mound of dirt growing on Mora's lawn and his hired workers descending into the ground for two weeks straight, a concerned neighbor called the city Tuesday to report the odd behavior.

Stunned employees from the Fire, Police and Building departments showed up late in the afternoon, amazed at what they found. Code-enforcement officials posted a red "stop work" ticket near the hole, citing a code violation for the "hazardous excavation."

"It was an obvious life-safety issue," said Troy Ament, deputy fire chief. "Anytime we come across that, we need to cease that operation."

You can be sure that the authorities didn't waste time with a Kabuki theatre debate over whether or not to stop Mora.

So. Is Mora apologetic over this waste of time and resources? Apparently not.

Mora said he has no plans to give up hunting for treasure. But next time, he'll venture farther away from home Peru, perhaps. [...]

"When you see stuff like that, you go, `Hey, I may have something. Maybe I've got a few gold bars,' " Mora said. "I took a chance."

These guys just can't stop themselves, apparently.

(Cross-posted with a square-head shovel...)