Jake Ingebrigtson still dreams about finding the medallion.
True, the 28-year-old St. Paul resident found the prize from last year’s Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt in record time – three clues – but his insatiable thirst for the search wasn’t slaked.
“I believe I’ll be the first person to find this three times,” he said. “I feel I have that big of an edge over everybody else.”
And that’s before he’s even found the puck a second time.
With the hunt scheduled to start today, how does one of the hunt’s most enthusiastic – if not obsessed – participants prep for the search?
Cautiously.
He has a good idea the prize will turn up in one of two parks this year, he said, but he won’t name names.
His shovel and hoe are still in the trunk of his car from last year, and he’s already been scoping out likely hiding places.
A recent drive-by of a couple of area parks to check on snow cover turned into a “three-hour, one-person think tank,” he said.
He’s already set up time off from his job at a financial company and stayed in hunting form by participating in a mid-summer mock hunt.
He won.
He still has about half of last year’s $10,000 prize money left – he paid off some bills, he said – and he used the last of the $1,200 in Cub Foods gift certificates the first week of January.
And what about Rob Brass, the man Ingebrigtson credits with pointing him to the right area of Hidden Falls Park to find the medallion last year? He just wants a meal at Matty B’s – on Ingebrigtson – before the hunt starts this year.
Last year’s find has brought Ingebrigtson a bit of attention, not all of it wanted.
He’s been recognized on the street a few times and has been accused of cheating a few times more. Once an elderly woman had to bite her tongue while talking to Ingebrigtson, she was so certain that he was tipped off about the hiding spot.
“It doesn’t get to me; it’s like throwing gas on a fire,” he said. “Even some of my best friends and family members used to say ‘You’ll never find it, why bother?’ Now they’re saying I’ll never do it again.”
That fire burns bigger than just finding the actual medallion. Ingebrigtson is constantly trying to figure out who writes the 12 clues printed in the newspaper over the course of the hunt.
He puts Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray at the top of the list, but even a beat reporter interviewing him about the hunt isn’t safe from suspicion: “I’m not 100 percent convinced you’re not writing them,” he said during a recent chat.
And making hunt predictions and issuing challenges is nothing new for Ingebrigtson – he’s been strong-headed about the hunt since his first one in 1999.
Ingebrigtson predicts this year’s medallion will be well camouflaged, and the search will go on for at least nine clues.
“I’ve got a lot more predictions but just not a lot I want in print,” he said.
One final one is this: The next time he finds the medallion, he’s not going to give it back to the Pioneer Press.
“I’ll bring it in and let them see it, but I’m holding onto it,” he said.
John Brewer can be reached at jbrewer@pioneerpress.com.
SOME NUMBERS
The medallion has been found most in: Como (seven times), Highland (five) and Cherokee (four) parks.
The shortest hunts have been three days long (1975, 1980, 2007); more than 80 percent of the hunts (since 1991) go a week or longer.
65 men and 50 women have found the medallion.
Copyright 2008 Pioneer Press.