Isn't That Amazing, Charlie?

It's too bad that Charles Fort is no longer alive. I think he would even be amazed by what I've found.

Fort (1874-1932) was born in Albany, NY. He was a writer/researcher who used to collect all sorts of odd items from various newspapers, stories about strange lights in the sky or fantastic coincidences. My discovery today is definitely Fortean.

Compare these two excerpts from the Press-Republican, the first dated 3/17/10, the second published on 6/30/10. These excerpts were taken from full page displays ads paid for by an outfit called Treasure Hunters Roadshow, a traveling concern that says it pays top dollar for collectibles:






Unbelievable. Two different visits, two different locations, but same event occurred! Each time a man came in with a cigar box and was paid $712.37 for the contents within said cigar box.

But that's not all. If you keep reading each ad, you'll learn that back in March a man visited THR at the Super 8 motel and was paid $5700 for a Fender guitar that his father owned. But during THR's recent visit at the Hampton Inn & Suites the same thing happened again!

I hope this doesn't mean that THR is using canned copy, inserting new details as needed when they run this ad. You know, a boilerplate where the name of the city and the motel is changed. That would imply shenanigans.

But don't worry. Those brave investigative reporters at the Press-Republican will make sure no scams are going on. After all, the PR is the Hometown Newspaper of Clinton, Franklin, and Essex Counties. It protects its readers.