Astoria Park Treasure

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• September 8, 2025

After an impromptu trip to Montana with two of my close friends to attempt to find Justin Posey’s treasure worth millions (more on this here if you missed it), where we didn’t find the loot but had a great time in nature, especially at Yellowstone, I decided, like Justin, I wanted to “be the fun I wanted to see in the world.”

Granted, I’m not an eccentric millionaire, just eccentric, so it wasn’t like I was going to hide a real treasure worth anything up in the Catskills of New York (though, if I found Justin’s treasure, I would have taken a portion of it to continue Forest Fenn and Justin’s legacy, but hide it in the American East instead of West since that’s where I’m from). However, I do live next to what I consider one of the best parks in all the boroughs of New York City, Astoria Park (Astoria Park, by the way, for decades has been considered the safest park in all of the NYC boroughs), which isn’t a big Park, but a special place to all who frequent there.

Astoria Park is on the East River, under two bridges, the Hell Gate Bridge (solely for trains) and the Tri-Boro Bridge (which is technically now the RFK bridge, but Tri-boro is a better name because it literally unites three boroughs and I like the Kennedy’s but enough stuff is named after them). The park has a giant swimming pool, a splash pad the kids love, two playgrounds, a track and outdoor work out area (which I love), tennis and basketball courts, a bocci ball court, and hosts numerous community outings. The NYC skyline always looks like a painting in the distance. For a decade, I’ve called Astoria home, and I love it here. The people are chill and you can get the best food IN THE WORLD in Astoria, often better than NYC restaurants.

I love kids, and even though the kids I love most (my nephews and niece) don’t live near me, I thought it would be a pretty cool thing to set up a treasure hunt for the kids in my community, from a would be mysterious pirate (that’s me, I’m the mysterious pirate). On Amazon, I ordered a little plastic chest full of plastic gold doubloons and gems for about $15. Like Forest and Justin, I wrote a little poem that would serve as the “map” from one end of the park, to the other, where the treasure would be buried (the park is about a mile long).

In addition to the poem/map, I left little clues in the form of my trademark mini rubber ducks. Followers of mine know that I like to travel with bags of these little rubber ducks— I take pictures of them in the frame of a beautiful landscape and leave them like little calling cards. I also drew red hearts on various walkways, signs, and trees which were also meant to be like “trail marker” clues. Don’t worry, I drew these with soap chalk, so it is environmentally safe and would wash off in rainfall.

Katrina, aka Pieces, came over to help bury the chest and write out the poem. Though I’m a writer, I have god awful serial killer like handwriting. We made the poem into a detachable booklet, attached to a colorful skull and crossbones I had colored from an ocean adult coloring book that I have (haha). Friday evening before Labor Day weekend, we had a pretend “picnic” near the tree where were going to bury it so not to be suspicious. Pieces, the ever lawful good person, said, “are we allowed to dig in the park? It could be illegal to dig.” I vary from a true neutral to chaotic good, so I said, “who gives a shit if it’s illegal? It’s a kid treasure the size of a brick. There are people being murdered in other New York City parks.”

We buried it, using sticks to make an “x” and a seashell clue. At first light the next day, I placed my clues and set up the map. And then I went to Long Island for the weekend to see family. When I got back after the holiday weekend, the treasure, map and little ducks were all gone. I don’t know who found it (hopefully kids as the map specifically stated it was for kids only). Pieces and I debated if I should leave contact information if the treasure was found, but I decided I liked being mysterious more. It is my hope that some kid(s) day was made, and that they display the cheap chest proudly in their bedroom and brag about it to their new classmates at the start of the school year.

This hunt cost me very little money, but was fun for me creatively. Getting involved with your community, even somewhat anonymously, is a little treasure in and of itself. Be the fun you want to see in the world.