Belgian Beach Cleaner Finds Rare Lego Life Jacket: A Treasure Hunt on the Coast

Since she retired as a kindergarten teacher, Rosa Coene (64) has made it her mission to keep Middelkerke’s waterfront clean with the Proper Strand Lopers. Cans and candy wrappers, rope and isomo, jerry cans and plastic bags: she goes out with her garbage bag two or three times a week.

“It’s a story we all know. It’s pretty special, if you think so. You have to be lucky for it.”

Rosa Coene (64)

We found a Lego life jacket on Westende beach

But on Saturday her eye fell on an ugly little thing that she immediately knew would be the envy of other members of the Proper Strand Lopers. She held a Lego life jacket between her thumb and toe. And that’s not just any trash: some beachgoers have been searching for it for years.

Five million cubes

All of that has to do with the incredible history of the block. On February 13, 1997, the carrier Tokyo Express was on its way from Rotterdam to New York when it encountered a monster wave near the westernmost point of England. The ship went 60 degrees to the side and 62 ships fell from a table, including one containing almost five million Lego bricks with a ‘sea’ theme.

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In the years that followed, thousands of these Lego blocks washed up on the English coast. And the more time passes, the further away the blocks are washed. Children especially look for it and for adults too it is sometimes more than a game. “It’s a story we all know,” said Rosa Coene. “It’s pretty special, if you think so. You have to be really lucky for that. I’m very happy with it.”

Holy Love

Swimming fins, sea grass, diving tanks: these are still the ‘normal’ finds. The Lego octopuses are considered to be a ‘holy grail’, as there were only a few thousand of them in the container. An octopus was discovered in England this weekend the international media.

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And the yellow life jackets? Of these, 26,600 were on board. More than the octopuses. But even Tracey Williams, who grew up on the coast where the incident happened and with him Adrift he wrote a book about it, she never found one in all her research.

In addition to England, Lego blocks have also washed up in Ireland, France, the Isles of Scilly, Guernsey and Texel in the Netherlands. Williams also knows an octopus in Texas and a fin in Australia. The Proper Strand Lopers have recorded six Lego finds on the Belgian coast since 2017.