A Philippines fisherman was feeling down on his luck when a house fire forced him to clear out his possessions and change locations – until a good luck charm that he had kept under his bed changed his life.

The unidentified man had fished out a giant pearl from the ocean when his anchor got stuck on the rock while sailing off the coast of Palawan Island in the Philippines ten years ago.

When he was forced to sell it, the shocked tourism agent at Puerto Princesca told him that the 77-pound gem that he had kept hidden in his rundown wooden home was likely to be the biggest pearl in the world, measuring in at 1 foot wide and 2.2 feet long. It's also valued at £76 million ($100 million).

The Lao-Tzu Pearl, which is currently on display in the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum in New York City only weighs in at 14 pounds – five times smaller than the gem that the fisherman just handed in.

According to Aileen Cynthia Amurao, a Puerto Princesa city tourism officer and relative of the fisherman, the monstrous prize is going to be verified by the Gemologist Institute and other international authorities before hopefully going on display to attract more tourists to the little town.

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