One look at the Treasure Hunters Roadshow operation and it's clear what popular program the operation is exploiting. The Illinois-based traveling con has little in common with PBS' Antiques Roadshow beyond a treasure chest logo and a similar name. Another thing it shares is a popularity based on a decreasingly well-off population's desperate hope that a lifetime of treasuring material things will somehow, miraculously, be monetarily profitable.

A national cultural failure, for sure. But the real tragedy is that this swindle is being underwritten by the very organizations charged with protecting their respective communities from just such chicanery.