Someone’s Leaving Bundles Of Up To £2,000 In Cash In A County Durham Village
Published
| Last updated
Anytime you find a bit of cash when you're out and about, it's usually no more than about 50p - a quid if you've really lucked out.
But what if you stumbled upon a mysterious bundle of £20 notes? Would you pick it up and take it, or succumb to your conscience and find somewhere to hand it in?
Well, the people of Blackhall Colliery, a village in County Durham, have faced that very quandary, after strange packets of bank notes - usually amounting to a whopping £2,000 - started cropping up on the streets.
And it turns out they're actually a pretty honest bunch, as they've been giving the bundles they've found to the police - having since been praised by the local parish council for their 'integrity'.
The money has been left out in public spaces, often on the pavement, which has led many to believe it is meant to be found.
Local police even reckon it could be the work of some generous lottery winner, although they've admitted they're pretty stumped with what's going on.
Det. Con. John Forster, of Durham Police, said: "We've had the theory that it could be a lottery winner who has decided to pay something back to their local community, but the truth is we don't know.
"You have to imagine that potentially money's been found that hasn't been handed in to us - we might never know the amount of that.
"But I'm just thinking how great it is that there are so many honest people in this village, their first instinct was to get straight to the police station.
"Some of them are shaking when they come in, they just want it to get back to the person who may have lost it."
Detectives have thanked honest residents who have repeatedly handed in bundles of £2,000 in cash which keep mysteriously turning up in their village.
There have been 12 incidents reported since 2014.
To read the full story visit: https://t.co/AQsCJiZspF pic.twitter.com/UyBUjtd5Gr
- Durham Constabulary (@DurhamPolice) November 18, 2019
The packets of notes have been turning up in the former mining village on at least 12 occasions since 2014 - with the latest find happening on 18 November.
But over the past few years, police are still yet to determine where it's coming from.
What we do know, at least, is that the locals in the small village seem to be the purest lot out there, as they've been handing the cash over to cops rather than pocketing it for themselves.
Gaynor Crute, chair of Monk Hesleden Parish Council said: "There's so much negativity and bad press so when you have something like this it is obviously heart-warming to know the people you live with, your neighbours, have so much honesty and integrity."
Back in September, one resident - 73-year-old Teresa Combey - found a bundle of cash in the gutter and put it inside her shopping bag, before she took it home and phoned the police.
Her husband Bill, 76, told The Sun: "It wasn't in a bag, just lying in the gutter.
"It wasn't our money, so we phoned the police straight away.
"Other people have said, 'We'd have kept it'. But we weren't brought up to do things like that."
In a nice twist, they were given the money two weeks later, as no one had claimed the cash.
Sometimes it pays to do the right thing, it seems.
