Hoffman Family Gold takes viewers inside the world of gold mining.
But what happens off-camera is even wilder than what viewers see.
And a Hoffman Family Gold star went to hell and back in this nightmare situation.
Hoffman Family Gold star chased around the jungle by armed men
The hit Discovery Channel reality show, Hoffman Family Gold, follows three generations of the Hoffman family as they mine for gold in Alaska.
A spin-off of the show Gold Rush, it shows the difficult conditions that miners work in to try to strike gold.
Series star Todd Hoffman talked about the dangers of hunting for gold during an interview with Fox News Digital.
“I got chased around Georgetown, Guyana, when I was in the jungle by a whole car full of guys with guns,” Hoffman said. “I just come from the bank and I had two backpacks full of cash.”
Hoffman said that he was carrying $6,000 in each backpack but that was worth more than two million Guyanese dollars.
And the armed thugs after him were determined to get that money.
“Once I got in the car, they’re right on us,” Hoffman recalled. “They were holding their guns out the window. They hadn’t started shooting at us yet, but I said, ‘Open the windows. We’re going to throw the cash out the window.'”
Wild car chase unfolds with Hoffman Family Gold star
What happened next was like something out of a movie.
“But we got in this car chase like you’d see in the movies, man,” Hoffman continued. “And I said, ‘Once we get stuck, I’m throwing the cash out and everybody just lay down. We’re going to throw the cash out.'”
“We just kept right in front of them,” Hoffman added. “And my driver got us away. And I don’t know how he did it, but he was literally screaming at the top of his lungs and so it added to the drama, like my driver screaming. I’m just freaked.”
Hoffman said that he and his driver were in a Toyota Tercel.
And his driver Vicky’s slick moves got them out of the jam.
“Vicky got us away,” Hoffman said. “Vicky somehow busted a right, busted a left, busted a right and then somehow they got stuck and we got away. And then we went into this guy’s garage. We put the car in there because they were roaming around.”
Hoffman said that he was nervous as he saw the thugs after him go by while they were hiding in the garage.
“Like in the movies, you look out, and they drive by, and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. These guys are trying to get this money. I mean, they’re trying to – they’ll kill us. They don’t care,'” Hoffman recalled. “In the jungle, man. It’s dog-eat-dog.”
That terrifying incident didn’t stop him from his pursuit of gold in Guyana.
“We would almost die there probably once a week. Somebody would almost die,” Hoffman said. “That was years ago when we were mining in the jungle.”
Gold mining is a hard and dangerous business and fans can watch three generations of the Hoffman family try to strike it rich on the new season of their show.
