Most of us find nothing more than the odd rat and shitload of dust in our roofs, so what's one to do when stumbling across plastic bags filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in there?
That's the case for one Kiwi couple who were settling into their new house. They made the unreal discovery after an electrician found 5 vacuum-sealed packs of banknotes totaling $232,440. Life-changing stuff, eh?
Instead of blowing the cash immediately, the pair did the honourable thing and phoned the police to tell them about their out-the-gate find. Now, the High Court’s got its hands on the case to figure out if the couple gets to keep the dosh.
So what ever happened to that old ‘finders keepers’ rule?
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 coppers first.
The insane amount of money has been slapped with a restraining order, meaning the couple won't see a cent unless they win the case.
Reminds me of that Aussie lad who discovered a real-life infinite money glitch on an ATM and ran off on a 4-month bender back in 2011. After an unreal holiday and using the hack to pocket AU$1.6 million (NZ$1.7 million), he ended up dobbing himself into the police as the heaviness of the guilt became too much.
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.
