It was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime – a real-world treasure hunt that promised riches and excitement.
Dan Leonard, a 48-year-old meteorologist, never dreamed the competition would lead to a stunning act of betrayal that would leave him fearing for his life.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Leonard explained how he first heard about the Project Skydrop game on television and spent weeks deciphering the complex clues.
The organizers had hidden a 10-ounce, 24 karat gold statue on a forest floor in the Northeast of the country.
Players who paid a $20 registration fee were given access to clues, maps and livestream footage, and whoever found it would win a $83,000 prize.
Leonard, who lives with his wife and 18-month-old child in Massachusetts, said of the statue: ‘It was gorgeous, unique and mysterious.’ He just knew he had to have it.
But despite ultimately winning the competition, an unexpected chain of events meant he suddenly faced losing his hard-earned prize money.
Worst of all, a new friend who promised to help him secure his winnings later turned on him – and even admitted to taking a knife to the forest where the treasure was hidden.
Dan Leonard, a 48-year-old Massachusetts meteorologist, set out on what was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime: a real-world treasure hunt
The Project Skydrop organizers had hidden a 10-ounce, 24 karat gold statue on a forest floor in the Northeast of the country
But despite ultimately winning the competition, an unexpected chain of events meant he suddenly faced losing his hard-earned prize money
When Leonard first set out to solve the Project Skydrop mystery he didn’t realize at first that his meteorological skills would give him a unique edge.
But as he worked on the treasure hunt at night, he discovered his expertise in weather patterns could help him outsmart hundreds of other competitors.
He analyzed temperature readings, cloud cover and tree types visible in the aerial photos. Eventually he zeroed in on Wendell State Forest.
‘A lot of times I would stay up until one or two in the morning studying the satellite images, which my wife thought I was completely nuts,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘Every time an image updated and it was cloudy, I would mask out any areas on the satellite that showed sunny skies and vice versa. And if you do this enough times, you’re able to slowly narrow down your search area.’
After hours of searching, Leonard’s determination paid off and on October 1, hidden beneath a layer of fallen leaves, he found the gleaming golden statue.
‘When I came across the artifact, I knew the entire world was watching. It was a very, very unsettling feeling to be standing there holding it, looking around at nothing but pure nature, but knowing that an entire community was watching me live on a webcam, either cheering or jeering,’ he recalled.
The prize came with a decoder to access a Bitcoin wallet worth a staggering $87,600.
But despite being quickly hailed a hero by fellow treasure hunters, things quickly took a turn for the worse.
Leonard had spent weeks deciphering complex clues in ‘Project Skydrop,’ a real life treasure hunt for a gold statue that was hidden in the Northeast
After locating the prize, which came with a decoder to access a Bitcoin wallet worth a staggering $87,600, Leonard was quickly hailed a hero by fellow hunters
Pictured: Treasure hunter Chris Passmore and his wife
Another contestant snapped a photo of the trophy that revealed the code for the Bitcoin wallet and shared it online
Another contestant snapped a photo of the trophy that revealed the code for the Bitcoin wallet and shared it online.
This immediately sparked a frenzy as others tried to solve the code and claim the digital prize online.
To prevent chaos, game designer Jason Rohrer froze the Bitcoin funds and launched a new treasure hunt exclusively for Leonard.
The this time the prize was a jar of gold coins buried in the woods of New Hampshire.
But that’s when Leonard’s nightmare really began.
Despite the new treasure hunt being designed just for him, he found himself overwhelmed.
So when a fellow competitor from New Hampshire, Chris Passmore, offered to help crack the complex puzzles guarding the location of the gold, he welcomed him with open arms.
Hundreds of people had messaged Leonard after he won, but he believed Passmore was trustworthy and crucially, fun to work with.
‘He congratulated me and mentioned that he was part of the original hunt. It was a funny conversation, and we kept talking because he was an interesting guy,’ Leonard said.
As they spoke more, Leonard began providing Passmore with key clues.
‘I vetted him through LinkedIn and realized he was a professional. He didn’t have anything to gain from any nefarious purposes, so I figured I could trust him over someone faceless on the internet,’ Leonard said.
What’s more, as Leonard understood it, Passmore was helping him for free.
Yet as they worked to find the treasure, Leonard claimed that Passmore suddenly wanted to keep 65 percent of the bounty for himself.
‘I explained that I was always going to give him something for helping, but the agreement from the start was that he was helping for free. Now suddenly, things had changed,’ Leonard said.
‘To him, it was all a game. He described it as a real-life game of Survivor, where anything goes, alliances you make, people that you trust – and the ultimate goal was just to win,’ he added.
Yet Passmore said there was no official deal in place to help him without compensation.
He admitted it was possible he may have mentioned in passing that he was ‘not looking for anything’ in their partnership.
But after four days of searching with no luck – including an all-nighter – he wanted to negotiate terms and thought 65 percent seemed fair: a third for Leonard, a third for Passmore, and a third for his team of code breakers working behind the scenes.
‘A community online split into two groups: Team Dan and not Team Dan. Team Dan was rooting for me to get the second part of the prize – the bounty money,’ Leonard explained.
To prevent chaos, game designer Jason Rohrer froze the Bitcoin funds and launched a new treasure hunt exclusively for Leonard
The second prize was a jar of gold coins buried in the woods of New Hampshire
Just before midnight, a figure appeared wearing a baseball cap and balaclava, snatched the jar of gold and left a single-word note: ‘Anon’
At this time and without Passmore’s knowledge, Leonard turned to the Discord community for help.
A member provided him with GPS coordinates, but the final hunt took another unexpected turn.
At around 10pm as Leonard prepared to head to Madbury where the coins were hidden, his wife intervened after becoming concerned for his safety.
‘I put on my jacket and said, «I’m going.» My wife stopped me and said, ‘Don’t do it, it’s dangerous.»
‘I didn’t think she thought I would be killed, but going into the woods in the middle of the night to retrieve a bucket of gold is risky. Nobody else would be around, and someone else probably knew where it was, so it wasn’t worth taking any chances, especially with a family,’ Leonard explained.
So he stayed at home and the couple instead watched the livestream in sorrow and dread.
Just before midnight, a figure appeared wearing a baseball cap and balaclava, snatched the jar of gold and left a single-word note: ‘Anon’.
Leonard said it was obvious who was behind the mask and sank into despair, believing it was all over.
Shockingly, he later discovered that Passmore had taken a knife with him when he retrieved the treasure in the woods.
‘Who knows what happens if I had a confrontation with him? I could have easily been angry… might have had a heated exchange, and the next thing, you know, I’m stuck with a giant knife,’ he told Dailymail.com.
However, Passmore insisted that given the high stakes – and a lot of money on the line – he took a knife with him solely for self-preservation and his own safety.
‘You have no idea what could happen,’ Passmore said.
The goal of the treasure hunt was was to create an accessible game that anybody could play by putting their electronics away and stepping out into nature to explore
The game, called Project Skydrop, was created by New Hampshire man Jason Rohrer, who is a video game designer
Yet the story was not over.
Passmore said he was getting harassed and had been doxed online. At a certain point, he felt the prize money was not worth the ‘legitimate’ threats he said he received.
Turning to the owners of the game, he asked them for a decision on the right way forward and when they suggested giving the money to Leonard, he did not hesitate.
‘I believe him when he said that he just couldn’t live with the guilt. I think he felt the gold was tainted, and he didn’t like that feeling,’ Leonard said.
Most surprising is that the friendship between Leonard and Passmore is still going strong, and the pair are even set to meet for beers this week.
Despite what he called a betrayal, Leonard feels positively about the project.
‘I went from being his friend to wanting to kill him to being his friend again. It was an extreme emotional roller coaster,’ he said.
‘The first part was so much more rewarding because there was so much stress involved. And I felt like I was on a mission, and I completed the mission,’ he continued.
‘Getting the gold from Chris was more a sense of relief, a sense of «it’s finally over.» I can finally sleep – like the weight is lifted off your back and you can finally rest.’
Besides his original mistake of letting fans take a photo of the prize, Leonard added that he doesn’t have many regrets.
‘Not many people in life get to experience that feeling. It’s a very strange feeling to have fans rooting for or against you, almost like a professional athlete,’ he reflected.
Passmore maintains that he did not break any rules of the game, but said you can’t imagine the ‘mental gymnastics’ treasure seekers have when that much bounty is on the line.
He also said that the two remain friends and everything is ‘all good’ between them.
