A man from Nagyenyed (Aiud in Romanian) got lucky a couple of years ago when he found a small plastic bottle filled with gold jewelry in a garbage dump while looking for metal scraps. He even distributed a couple of the jewels among his friends and family members, but, unfortunately, one of them envied his luck and decided to take the treasure for himself. The aggressor, Romeo Balog, was sentenced to two years of suspended prison time.
The prosecutors announced that in December of 2016, a family bought a house in Nagyenyed, which they started to renovate in February of 2017. They transported some of the debris to a vacant lot that was near a waste sorting station. Other people also deposited similar debris in the area. A month later, around March 20, a man went there to look for some metal scrap and found a 0.5-liter plastic bottle filled with gold jewelry. According to later estimates, the man had found more than 50 jewels, rings, chains, and other gold items.
The next day, the lucky man gave some of the jewels to family members, including Romeo Balog, his future aggressor. On March 24, 2017, the man’s girlfriend sold two chains at a local pawn shop for RON 783 (EUR 160), so it became clear to the whole family that the items were made of gold and were valuable.
“As the fact that the man had found many jewels became known, the defendant also found out about it and decided to appropriate them, relying on the that fact the victim had a small and weak constitution and was a timid, easily intimidated person who consumes alcoholic beverages very often. So around March 25, 2017, the defendant left with his car to look for the man who had found the gold,” states the prosecutors’ indictment.
In order to find out where the lucky man was, Balog told people he was looking for the man to have him help him with some work, even though they had never discussed any such thing, and the victim had never worked for the aggressor. First the aggressor went to the man’s house, where his girlfriend told him that he had gone to a store nearby. So Balog returned to his car, went to the store and got into an argument with the man who had found the jewels, trying to convince him to give him the gold. Balog even threatened his life and, using other acts of violence, forced the man into his car.
On the way to the man’s home, Balog threatened him once more, saying that he will “cut him into slices and pieces,” so the man decided to give him the rest of the gold, 46-47 rings.
The victim later went to the police and filed a complaint. While searching the aggressor’s house, the stolen goods were not found, and only five men’s rings were handed over. In court, Balog said he had received only five rings, but evidence showed that the number was much higher.
“According to the decision of the Court of Nagyenyed, neither the amount of gold found by the victim nor the amount that came into the defendant’s possession was determined with certainty. However, in this case, the case of robbery, it was not necessary to determine in detail and without any doubt the amount stolen goods. […] Taking into consideration the result of the home search and the consistent statements given by the victim during the criminal investigation, corroborated by statements of the witnesses, it is beyond any doubt that a handover of some jewelry took place between the victim and the defendant and that some of the jewels were found later,” the decision of the Court of Nagyenyed states.
The court sentenced Balog to two years of suspended prison time and three years of police supervision. The defendant was also forbidden to communicate with the victim and must also abide by a restraining order; he cannot be within 200 meters of the victim for four years.
Title image (illustration): Some might find treasure in the waste of others. Photo: www.jurnalulolteniei.ro
