$10 Million Unearthed in South Korean Garlic Patch

When a laborer named Ahn was hired to dig up a Japanese apricot tree in a South Korean garlic patch, he also uprooted part of a secret stash of $10 million buried in the field.

In digging up the tree, Ahn also pulled up a plastic box, which he discarded as junk unaware that it was stuffed with $270,000 in cash.

Two months later, landowner Lee, 53, falsely accused Ahn of stealing $620,000.

Unearthing that secret has spawned a police investigation into the buried loot, a probe into $5 million more that is allegedly missing, and accusations that Ahn stole some of the missing money -- which may just be a tactic by the owner of the land to protect himself from the gangsters whose money he was hiding.

According to South Korean police and news reports, Ahn, 52, was hired in February to excavate the tree after the land was sold because the previous owner wanted his apricot tree after selling the land to a man named Lee. The reports do not identify any of the men's first names.

Lee also delivered the ominous news that the money belonged to gangsters, sending Ahn straight to the police for protection and to declare his innocence, according to police reports.

Police soon descended on the garlic field in the village of Gimje, about 160 miles south of Seoul, and dug it up. On Monday, the cops found 27 plastic boxes packed with South Korean currency, the won, which totaled $10 million.