A Colorado man being divorced by his wife of 25 years after he allegedly beat her and held her captive during a fight over finances claimed in court that he had the couple's life savings of $500,000 converted to gold before dumping it all in the trash.

Earl Ray Jones, 52, of Divide, Colorado, shocked his wife's divorce lawyer when he first revealed his outrageous plot to prevent his soon-to-be-ex-wife from getting any money in their divorce.

"We say that when people are divorcing, they enter a state of temporary insanity," John-Paul Lyle told the Colorado Springs Gazette. "But on a scale of 1 to 10, this is my 10."

It remains unclear if the former defense contractor actually went through with his threat, however, as there are no witnesses to his alleged disposal of the gold bars in multiple trips to the dumpster behind his temporary home at a weekly rate motel on Airport Road.

Nor has the gold turned up at any local landfills.

"I didn't have any drivers walking off the job with a smile in May," Waste Connections' garbage truck manager Rick DiPaiva told the Gazette.

Back in June, after Jones was ordered by a judge to pay his wife $3,000 a month, he claimed he had no money left after emptying the couple's shared retirement and investment accounts and having the money turned into about 22 pounds of gold through CMI Gold and Silver.

He initially tried withdrawing it from the bank in cash, but his request was refused.

"If that would have been an option, I would have been walking around giving people $100 bills," Jones said in a sworn interview with Lyle.

According to Lyle, the transaction with CMI did indeed take place, but he remains skeptical about the gold ending up in the trash.

Jones, meanwhile, will be doing the rest of his taunting from behind bars: He is due back in court on November 4th for sentencing after being convicted of assault back in September.

[photo via Shutterstock, mug shot via Teller County Sheriff's Office]