Pension find

A retired United States Navy reservist who turned to treasure hunting was lucky to find what he was looking for in January.

In a belated sharing of his treasure hunt that he livestreamed on TikTok, Jack Pearadin said he stumbled on a golden-yellow, almost square little rock in a bucket of gravel that he and his friend, Michael Schumacher, collected from the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, in December, Fox News reported, citing AP.

Laura Stanley, a certified gem appraiser in Little Rock, told the AP that the high-quality six-carat yellow diamond could sell for about $250,000.

The longtime gem hunter said he plans to split any profits with Schumacher, who helped collect the gravel containing the stone, and use his share from the windfall to open his own crystal mine, according to AP.

Meanwhile, a 71-year-old Chinese man in Changde, Hunan province, had been scavenging for 21 years to earn a living.

Prior to collecting and selling scraps, the man surnamed Ru worked at a state-owned shop in Zhuzhou for 30 years until he was laid off in the early 2000s, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

In the winter of 2024, social workers found Ru, who was estranged from his family, living in an abandoned building and convinced him to relocate to a shelter, according to SCMP.

One of the social workers, Wu Jinhui, learned that Ru had reached retirement age and was eligible for a pension since 2015. The old man said he assumed he was not qualified to get a pension unless he paid an endowment insurance, which he could not afford.

In late September, Ru received a bank card linked to his new pension account, which showed a balance of 424,204 yuan ($63,000), as reported by Changde Daily.

Ru sobbed when he saw the huge amount and profusely thanked the social service authority.

He plans to use the money to rent his own place and visit his hometown, according to SCMP.