Yahoo Finance Mystery behind $3,800 packages left on streets solved
Residents of UK village Blackhall Colliery have for years wondered why they kept finding bundles of cash in the streets.
The bundles, usually with around £2,000 (AU$3,778) of cash in them, were found 12 times since 2014, leaving residents of the north-eastern town in Durham increasingly puzzled.
Officers interviewed locals and spoke to banks to try to find where the £26,000 had come from.
But now the mystery has been solved, with the Durham Constabulary revealing an anonymous couple had come forward.
The couple had received a windfall and decided to use the money to help people and chose the town due to an “emotional connection”, after they were helped by a resident.
The couple also said they had chosen to leave the money in places where pensioners and people in need would find them.
“I’m really pleased we have an answer to this mystery and am glad we can now definitively rule out the money being linked to any crime or a vulnerable person,” Detective Constable John Forster said, as reported by the BBC.
Related story: Gold coins worth nearly $6k found in old kettle
“I would like to thank the good Samaritans for getting in touch and also to the honest residents of Blackhall, who have continued to hand the money in.”
He said people should continue to hand in the money to the police, noting that all the cash had historically been returned to those who found it.
What to do with money you find on the ground
In Australia, a person can be charged with theft if they find something belonging to someone else and don’t hand it in to the police, Victoria Police has warned.
“Items should always be taken to a police station and if they are not claimed within a three-month-period, you can take ownership of the item.”
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