Oakland 6th-graders find treasure in Lake Merritt OAKLAND

They weren't seeking sunken treasure, but that's what some sixth-graders from St. Paul's Episcopal School found Thursday submerged in a few feet of water in Oakland's Lake Merritt.

A student was scooping up trash with a long net from the shore near Grand and Harrison streets when she spotted two bags about the size of reusable grocery totes sitting in about 2 feet of water, said Richard Bailey, executive director of the Lake Merritt Institute.

The bags were heavy and she couldn't scoop them up, Bailey said, so he waded out in hip boots and pulled them to shore.

The canvas bags weighed about 15 pounds each and made a lot of clinking as they moved, Bailey said. The students, excited to see what sort of booty was inside, crowded around their find.

When they opened the bags, the group erupted in thrilled shrieks.

It was a real treasure: rings, necklaces, brooches, bracelets, candlesticks, coins, medallions and silverware filled each bag.

It was by far the most memorable discovery the group has made at the lake while helping to clean it as part of a weekly service learning and science project, school officials said. The school's sixth-grade students have worked at Lake Merritt once a week for about 15 years.

"We find a lot of stuff, a lot of tennis balls and things, but no, never that," said sixth-grader Mara, whose parents requested not to reveal her last name. "It was basically the best thing we ever found in there."

One of the bags had "Wells Fargo" stamped on it, which led Bailey to believe that the items had been stolen. He reported the incident to police but is still waiting for a response.

Police did not return The Chronicle's phone calls Thursday night.

The Lake Merritt Institute has been cleaning the lake for about 20 years, and while most of what volunteers scoop up are plastic bags and other litter, Bailey said the lake also works as a sort of Lake of the Lost for criminals.

While the children said they've never found anything as valuable as the bags of booty, other volunteers have pulled out items valuable to a fairly specific set of modern-day pirates, Bailey said.

Adult volunteers once found a stolen briefcase that still held a man's passport and wallet, plus his company's security codes. Another time they found a couple of kilograms of white powder, a sawed-off shotgun and an Uzi rifle.

Bailey said he hopes that if the items in the bag had been stolen, they will finally be able to be returned to their rightful owners. But in the meantime, he said, he is happy they provided some excitement for the children.

"They come out every week and do the dirty work, so it's a good reward for them," he said.