Local Mechanic Opened A Dumpster And Quickly Learned His Life Wouldn't Ever Be The Same

The date was September 22, 2017. The phone call Jared answered had been made by a pal who was working at a barn over in a place called Watertown. This friend was being employed to clear this barn, which hadn’t even been stepped inside for a very long time. There was some curious stuff there, and he thought Jared might be interested in it.

This guy’s instincts were correct. Jared loves collecting things, particularly components used in cars or motorcycles. And he was definitely excited to go take a look at whatever was hidden away in this old barn. So the following day he set out alongside his pal George Martin and George’s kid Logan.

When the group got to the barn, they instantly knew they’d stepped into an extraordinary situation. They were shown to the dumpsters and took a look at what was inside. Sure enough, they were flabbergasted at what they observed. Jared himself later described the scene as “gut-wrenching and very upsetting.”

Jared had suddenly been pulled into a strange situation. He knew the items inside this dumpster were important, so he retrieved them, brought them home, and got stuck into some intense research. This would take him on a wild journey — one that meant his life would never quite be the same again.

Before this fateful moment, life had played out in a pretty regular way for Jared. He grew up in Connecticut, finished high school, and pursued his interest in messing around with automobiles. He worked in a number of different car shops over the years and later set up his own auto firm.

For more than half a decade, Jared oversaw this operation. But by 2007 it was time for a change. He noticed a newspaper advertisement for a part-time maintenance job at St. Anne’s, a church in his local area. He liked the look of the role and put in an application. And before long, he learned that he’d got the job.

St. Anne’s wasn’t the simplest place to look after, though, owing to its two enormous spires. Shooting 170 feet into the air and composed of granite and red brick, these things were true landmarks of the community. And it was Jared’s job alone to keep these structures in pristine condition, which was far from easy.

The interior of the spires was lined with the red bricks — and they were starting to disintegrate. Speaking to The Waterbury Observer toward the end of April 2022, Jared recalled, “The red brick began crumbling and I reported about it for years. I saw it with my own eyes.” But nothing significant was ever done to tackle the issue.

By 2019 the spires had become too dangerous to retain, so they were taken apart, bit by bit. Jared was heartbroken. All the bricks and pieces of stone that’d once composed these spires were now labeled and placed into storage. The hope is that one day enough funds will be accrued to reconstruct them.

Speaking of this collection of stones, Jared said, “It’s a giant puzzle and there are plans to begin fundraising to put them back up. It may take five or ten years, I don’t know, but it ripped my heart out when we took them down.” If nothing else, this story tells us quite a lot about Jared’s character: he hates to see culturally significant artifacts being lost.

This is a characteristic we see again in how Jared dealt with the dumpster inside that barn. When he received the call to come look at the place, he had no particular expectations of what awaited him. Maybe he’d discover some interesting objects, perhaps even some old car components? In actual fact, though, he’d come across something of historic importance.

Accompanied by father-son duo George and Logan, Jared showed up to take a look in the barn. George was renowned around Connecticut as a skateboarder and he also had another claim to fame locally. Every Halloween, he made one of the most extravagant exhibits in the area, bringing thousands of visitors to his house.

Now the trio were in this barn, faced with a massive dumpster jammed full of objects. The group approached and realized what were inside: paintings. An insane number of artworks were in here, which was actually kind of unsettling. As Jared later wrote online, “It was gut-wrenching and very upsetting for us to get to see what looked like a lifetime of somebody’s artwork being thrown into dumpsters and heading for the landfill.”

Jared had been intrigued by the barn in the first place because of the possibility it might contain old automobile components. Weirdly, this kind of turned out to be the case. Some of these paintings actually depicted such objects, which was an odd coincidence. Other people had been alerted about the artworks before Jared, but it was him — who had a specific fascination with automobile parts — who’d save the day.

Both Jared and George quickly realized that they couldn’t allow these artworks to be thrown away. Their first thought was that George could use the paintings as part of his famous Halloween displays. The holiday was coming up in a few weeks, after all, and he still hadn’t figured out a plan for the event yet.

Before they could figure out what to do with the artworks, though, the group had to first get them from the dumpster. And this wasn’t as easy as it might sound. There were so many pieces, for one thing, and they were all covered with plastic that, in turn, was coated in grime.

The group realized that it’d be easier to remove the plastic, as Jared explained online. “We decided to unwrap the artwork to get a better look,” he wrote. “Once we opened them in better light, we not only noticed the good shape they were in, but more important the quality of the work. I started seeing some that really grabbed my attention and made me step back to take a better look. It was something that fine art had never done to me before.”

“Being a mechanic my whole life, I was able to pick out many hidden car parts and noticed a bio-mechanical theme going on with some of the artwork,” Jared continued. “Neither George nor I had ever seen anything remotely similar in style for that matter. We started to really appreciate what was surrounding us. It was in that moment we wanted to know just who this artist was and his story.”

Jared and George also noticed a signature appearing on the works. It read, “F. Hines.” That was something to work with, so they did a little online research. They took to Google and searched the name — but nothing really came back. F. Hines, it seems, wasn’t an artist of any particular note.

All signs seemed to point toward the fact all this work had been produced by an unsuccessful artist. That’d certainly explain why it was all found in the trash, waiting to be taken to the landfill. Still, Jared and George believed these pieces were special. It didn’t matter that F. Hines hadn’t been well-known — his art was worth saving.

A few years prior to this moment, Jared had constructed a massive covered skatepark. And this place was about to prove very useful, as it was big enough to allow for the storage and display of this huge number of artworks. Now people would be able to actually see these fantastic pieces that’d almost been lost entirely.

When Jared and his companions sorted through all the works and started bringing them out of the barn, they encountered one that gave them something to work with in their quest to find its creator. This piece was fully signed: “Francis Mattson Hines.” So they had an actual name to search for on the internet.

The results were more promising this time around. “The first image that came up was The Washington Square Arch in New York, completely wrapped in 8,000 yards of polyester fabric by the artist Francis Hines,” Jared explained online. “It was the same type of fabric that most of the paintings had stretched around them, and in which every sculpture was wrapped. There were also tons of fabric rolls still in the barn.”

The group had been right to save these artworks. F. Hines really was an artist of some note. As Jared reflected, “Not only was this artist a ‘someone,’ but he was even more well-known in the New York art world than we could ever have imagined. At least that’s what we thought. Little did I know how the art world really works, but I was going to find out very soon.”

Over the course of several days, Jared and George worked to transport the artworks away from the barn. When they weren’t doing that, though, they were looking for more information on Francis Hines’ past. And they quickly realized that his work was far too special to become part of a Halloween display.

Jared set about trying to organize this chaotic set of artworks, which was no easy task. He enlisted the help of his uncle and together they removed the plastic from each painting before hanging them up. They also measured the pieces, took photos, and cataloged them. This required hours and hours of work.

Jared also had to maintain the building where all these artworks were being stored. After all, he couldn’t have any water leaking through the roof or anything else that might damage the pieces. This meant even more work, which was already so much to deal with in tandem with having a full-time job.

All this work meant Jared had very little time for more research but eventually the majority of the hard graft was completed. This meant he could start investigating Francis Hines once again, which involved months of tracking down people who’d known him. Eventually, Jared pieced together the story of this great artist who, for some reason, had been largely forgotten.

Even though very few people knew of Francis Hines his name did crop up in Jared’s research. Within some circles, Hines’ artistic flair had evidently been recognized and celebrated. Some of his works appeared in exhibits here and there, with articles in art magazines mentioning him as well. But the mainstream had failed to really remember him.

It was a frustrating process for Jared, as he could only find fragments of information. He needed expert help. That led him to get in touch with an art trader in San Francisco by the name of Muldoon Elder. Muldoon had actually displayed some of Hines’ pieces back in the 1980s, so he was the perfect person to speak with.

Jared communicated with Muldoon quite a bit via email and telephone, which eventually proved fruitful. Muldoon mentioned someone called Peter Hastings Falk, who’s an art historian of some repute. Having looked up Peter to check out his credentials, Jared found his contact details and got in touch with him.

Peter was very interested in what Jared had to say and he even made the journey out to see all the paintings. He was extremely impressed with what he saw, too, so Jared now had a very useful ally. Both men made it their mission to show the world these wonderful artworks and to tell the story of the man who’d created them.

It wasn’t easy and it took years before any solid progress was made. But by September 2021 Jared had managed to organize an exhibition of some of the paintings. Unfortunately, though, it wouldn’t exactly make waves. But less than a year later he’d be doing a lot better — come April 2022 his tale was everywhere.

Jared appeared in a bunch of newspapers and magazines, where he was able to tell the story of these artworks and how he’d come by them. But perhaps the thing that most interested the press related to the implications for Jared’s future. You see, Francis Hines had died in 2016, meaning these works couldn’t be returned to him. But what of his family?

Well, the Hines family actually decided to give Jared the green light to sell the works on himself. That’s a remarkable gesture, especially when we consider what all these paintings might be worth. All in all, we’re talking millions of dollars. It seems Jared, mainly through sheer luck, has hit the jackpot.

That isn’t quite how Jared himself sees it, though. Speaking to The Waterbury Observer about the news stories proclaiming him to be a lucky guy who’s happened upon tremendous riches, he commented, “I didn’t really like a lot of those headlines. It made it seem like I’d won the lottery and overnight I was a millionaire. There is a lot more to the story.”

“This is going to take years to clean and restore and sell these pieces. Maybe I can sell one or two pieces a year and make a salary from the collection,” Jared explained. “Maybe I have a career change, I’m not sure, but I don’t ever plan on leaving St. Anne’s Church. It’s too important to me and there is so much work to do.”

So, despite everything, Jared has no plans to leave his beloved St. Anne’s. In fact, it seems the millions he stands to eventually make from this haul aren’t even his priority. Jared claims to be doing all this mainly so that Francis Hines will get the recognition he deserves. A noble pursuit, if his statements are to be believed.

Regardless, there’s no doubt Jared’s life has changed forever because of all this. He mightn’t stand to make millions overnight but the individual pieces should sell at no less than $12,000 each. That isn’t an insignificant number, especially when we consider just how many paintings were recovered in total. Jared’s definitely going to do alright out of this unlikely situation.