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One Man's Trash is Another's Treasure
December 04, 2008 11:03 AM
By EMILY WITHER, ABC News London
Christmas may have come early for a street cleaner from England who discovered $15,000 dollars’ worth of torn-up cash in the trash.
Graham Hill was emptying garbage cans in Lincoln, central England, when he came across bundles of cut-up 10- and 20- pound bills stashed in a plastic bag.
Hill turned the money into the police. But after a six-month investigation the money was returned to him because no one had come forward to claim it and officers could not link the bills to any criminal activity.
Hill now has quite a complicated jigsaw on his hands, but it'll be very rewarding if he can solve the puzzle. The Bank of England has said that for each bill he pieces together he'll be given a new one.
A bank representative confirmed to U.K. papers that it would accept the bills.
"Providing the bank notes meet the evidence requirements, then an application for reimbursement should be successful." Hill’s been told that each bill has to have two matching serial numbers. According to the police he'll have a tough job because no pair of serial numbers appears to have remained intact.
It still remains a mystery why the money was thrown out in the first place. Detective Constable Nick Cobb of Lincolnshire police led the investigation and he told ABC News that the case remains unsolved. "This was a very unusual case. Despite our inquiries, the circumstances of why and how the money came to be torn up and put in the bin remains a mystery."
Hill has a difficult task ahead of him. With the bills shredded into tiny scraps it looks like his Christmas bonus may be delayed. It's thought that it could take him up to three months to piece them back together, but the effort would be worth it.
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December 4, 2008 in Emily Wither | Permalink | User Comments (10)
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Pretty cool story.
Posted by: Huh | Dec 4, 2008 11:36:53 AM
I'll help him put the pieces together if he gives me a cut :)
Posted by: french queen | Dec 4, 2008 11:47:47 AM
I'm amazed he turned the money into the police.. talk about integrity!
Posted by: Nadine | Dec 4, 2008 3:36:16 PM
Couldn’t this money possibly be counterfeit anyway? This would be the only reason why anyone would tear up perfectly good money form a reputable state. Else this project is like fie itself. There is money at the end of the tunnel but just what are you willing to do to get it?
Posted by: Steve_In_IL | Dec 4, 2008 3:41:22 PM
Nadine
It is nice to see integrity, isn't it? Whether he has intact serial numbers or not, he should get the money. He deserves it, if for no other reason than that he did take it to police. Honesty like that should never go unrewarded.
If he can't piece them together enough to satisfy the rules, I'd be willing to chip in a little something. I don't have much, but that guy is a jewel and it's worth it to me to do something for him.
Posted by: Hoping for a better Future | Dec 4, 2008 3:45:49 PM
The article said that the police couldn't link the money to any criminal activity. I wish the writer or the police had taken it one step further to at least confirm that the money wasn't counterfeit. Otherwise, we just have to infer that is part of what they meant.
Posted by: Paula | Dec 4, 2008 3:54:57 PM
If I were he, I know how I would be spending all of my spare time for the next few months. I wish I had his problem.
Posted by: lwba | Dec 4, 2008 4:04:46 PM
Well as a Brit I can say that if the notes had been counterfeit they would not have given him them back. To even copy a note, let alone try and pass it is illegal, so it'll be genuine currency.
And for record if he can piece it together well enough he can return it to a bank who have to, by law, exchange it for an unfettered note, so he'll be fine if he can do it!
Posted by: Pete | Dec 4, 2008 6:26:26 PM
One lucky guy.
Posted by: NaMeLeSs | Dec 4, 2008 7:13:20 PM
this is so nice
Posted by: lola | Dec 4, 2008 8:19:56 PM
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