Owner of 'treasure' found in Lake Merritt IDd Oakland

Oakland -- They may have found sunken treasure, but the sixth-graders from St. Paul's Episcopal School in Oakland are a far cry from marauding pirates.

Almost a month after the students pulled up two bags full of old jewelry, coins, medallions and silverware while participating in a weekly service project cleaning Lake Merritt, police said Wednesday that they believe they have identified the rightful owner.

Had the owner not come forward, the students could have claimed the treasure for themselves after 90 days, said police who would not extimate the value of the haul. But despite their initial excitement over the March 29 discovery, the students said they are more than happy to return the goods.

"I thought that the things that we found were really cool and I wanted to touch them and hold them and look at them," said sixth-grader Emily Klyce, 12. "It would have been great for the money to go to our school, but I'm really glad that the person who lost it found it. It's theirs and they should have it."

Police said the owner asked not to be identified, but that he was able to provide information on the items that only an owner would know.

"The department received well over 100 calls from people who thought it could be theirs, but he was the only one who was able to identify the items," said Officer Johnna Watson, spokeswoman for the Oakland police.

Watson could not say how the man's possessions ended up in Lake Merritt. She said he has expressed an interest in "doing something nice for the school."

Emily said she was just happy to find the treasure. Although her group hasn't been back to the lake to clean it since the discovery - groups of the school's sixth-graders have alternated in helping to clean the lake once a week for the past 15 years - she said they still hold all the glory of the "coolest" find.

" 'Oh, we found a credit card! Oh, we found a dollar bill,' " she said her classmates in other groups would say after their cleaning trips. "And we're like, 'Oh, well, that's cool.' "

"I don't think anything can live up to this," she said.