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Treasures in store

This shop goes beyond offering antiques. It's also a metal-detecting business that helps people unearth rare finds.

By MIKE CAMUNAS, Times Correspondent
Published November 16, 2007

Steve Richardson, a treasure hunter and former North Carolina police detective, owns Famous Treasures on U.S. 41 in Land O'Lakes.
	[Brendan Fitterer | Times]

LAND O'LAKES 

This place would even make Fred Sanford smile.

Famous Treasures isn't a junkyard, although the storefront makes it look like one, with items from past generations strewn all over.

But there's more to Famous Treasures than buying old and rare stuff. Granted, there are seven rooms, filled wall to wall with records from the '50s to old typewriters to artwork to old toys to Coke bottles - as well as coins, flatware and jewelry.

However, owner Steve Richardson is more focused on something near and dear.

Treasure hunting.

"I said to (co-manager) Joe (Espi), 'Well, we have all this museum stuff, why not make a treasure display?'" Richardson said. "Joe just ran with it, and now he's selling stuff all over the world. It's unbelievable."

It's a head-turner, for sure, when driving down Land O'Lakes Boulevard/U.S. 41. Famous Treasures has the look of an antique store - full of collectibles - stirring curiosity in even the average onlooker.

"It's not a junkyard here," Espi said. "A lot of the things we have here are antiques - they're originals. Some antiques shops have a bunch of junk, to be honest with you - but here, it's always been focused on the unique and hard-to-find stuff."

Treasure hunting is really metal detecting, and now Famous Treasures sells the latest in high-tech metal detectors: from small ones for the novice beachcomber to deep-sea finders for scuba divers and undersea treasure hunters, not only locally and stateside, but internationally.

"It's crazy," co-manager Scott Braico said. "Whoever thought treasure hunting and metal detection would be a big business?"

Richardson said he got into metal detecting when he was a young police detective in North Carolina in the late '70s, when he was one of the few officers who could identify marijuana plants in the woods.

There were always old junk or metal scraps around the fields, so he bought a metal detector, and with that he found all kinds of old things.

"I got excited and been hooked ever since," he said. "If I knew what I knew now back then, I'd have had a metal detector in both hands."

He eventually came to Florida, still collecting items from the past. In early 2000, when he came upon the building in Land O'Lakes, it was an antique store called Calamity Jane's.

The store had been there since the 1940s, when it was a country store. It became an automotive store, then the antique store.

"I never had been that far north on 41 before," Richardson said. "When I saw Calamity Jane's, it was closed. Once I got ahold of the owner, we hit it off real well, and I finally brought it up that I might want to purchase the place.

"Twenty-nine days later I owned it."

Name came from book

Richardson said he got the name Famous Treasures from an old Ripley's Believe It Or Not book he had as a kid, and even started buying wax figures to put in the store. But he also started buying other collectibles, such as the old Coke truck from West Virginia that sits in front of the store.

But it's treasure hunting that has become very popular at Famous Treasures.

"With the treasure-hunting section - that's cool within itself," Espi said. "I mean, where else can you go to buy treasure hunting stuff?"

Espi said the advancements in metal-detecting technology have really boosted interest in treasure hunting, and the business is about to pick up in November, thanks to the snowbirds heading to Florida for the winter.

"This place - and the hobby - brings in all walks of life. It's not just your retired old person combing the beach anymore. It's young and old, rich - whoever - all people are getting into it and enjoying it."

A love of research

John Neish, jokingly referred to as "Treasure Hunting John" because of his demeanor and appearance - he has sun-worn skin and a long beard - buys all his equipment from Famous Treasures and also is a frequent visitor.

"I like sharing my finds there," Neish said. "I bring in what I find and share it, talk about where I found it, and that's the biggest thing they do there - they let everyone share."

"I come there for equipment, but more often than not I get research work done there. What research I can't find, they can cough up on the computer real quick."

Braico said research is important to all treasure hunters.

"A lot of it is research," Braico said. "About 99 percent of it is research, and the other 1 percent is actually getting out there and doing it. And, of course, a little luck.

"But all the local people come in here and show us the things they have. It's not uncommon for someone to walk in here with a $5,000 ring and go, 'Look what I found.'"

And that's just fine with Richardson.

"I mean, it surprised me, really," Richardson said. "I just wanted to have the little museum area where people could come look at for free and go, 'Well, hey, look at that.' But we've had a really astounding time because people really like looking for treasure.

"People will now just come and hang out and look around and show what they found. It's fun is what it is."

Fast facts

Famous Treasures

Owner: Steve Richardson

Managers: Joe Espi, Scott Braico

Web site/forum: www.famoustreasures.com

Where: 4312 Land O'Lakes Blvd., Land O'Lakes, FL 34639

Did you know?: According to the book Citrus Sawmills Critters and Crackers by Elizabeth and Susan MacManus, there has been a separate murder and suicide that took place inside the Famous Treasures building, which has produced rumors that it may be haunted. Espi and Braico claim that some customers have had eerie feelings in their farthest back room, and freelance photographers and videomakers, for some reason, are drawn to that room.

[Last modified November 15, 2007, 07:42:33]