Most of us can only find Pink Batts and the odd rat in our ceiling, so what the hell happens when someone stumbles across plastic bags filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash?
A Kiwi couple who were settling into their new house made the hectic discovery after an electrician found 5 vacuum-sealed packs of banknotes totaling $232,440. Life-changing stuff, eh?
The pair did the honourable thing and phoned the police to tell them about their out-the-gate discovery. The case is now with the High Court which will decide if the couple is allowed to keep it.
So what ever happened to that old adage ‘finders keepers’?
Turns out the police reckon it could be drug money after the property was found to have gang links.
A University of Canterbury Criminologist Dr Jarrod Gilbert told Stuff there was also a safety risk if the couple kept the money as the original owner could “come knocking” and “they may not ask very politely” for the cash back.
Here in NZ you can also be charged with ‘theft by finding’, so if you stumble across an insane amount of money in your travels, don't go planning ya dream trip without talking to the fuzz first.
The insane amount of money has been slapped with a restraining order, meaning the couple don’t get access to the funds unless they win the case.
A similar situation happened back in 2022 when a Chilean bloke did a runner after his workplace accidentally paid him 165,398,851 Chilean pesos (roughly $284,934 NZD) instead of 500,000 pesos (roughly $861). He quickly resigned from his job and disappeared, taking most of the money with him after his workplace discovered the f*ck up.
So what's the moral of the story here - stay in school? Don't adopt a life of crime, you might lose all the cash anyway? Check your roof space immediately? We're not sure…but it all makes for a very good yarn.
