Risking life and limb, an Austrian man recently decided to take the plunge and attempt to recover dozens of €100 and €500 notes. The money was inexplicably floating down the River Danube in Vienna, when the bystander grasped the opportunity to go for the most profitable swim of his life.
The man dived in to collect the money, which came to a round total of €100,000 ($109,000) but meanwhile onlookers thought he was trying to kill himself and rang the police. By the time the man was safely back on the bank, the police had arrived and his stash was subsequently impounded.
Unfortunatley, the playground rule of ‘finders keepers’ doesn’t apply in Austria
The authorities are currently trying to track down the rightful owner of the money
However, the man can claim between five and 10 percent of the sum
But luckily for him, there is another rule in Austria when it comes to finding money…
If the rightful owner hasn’t been found after a year, the person who finds the money has the right to receive the whole amount. “The boy said he wanted to bring it to the police, but the question is whether the police found it or the boy,” a police spokesman said.
I imagine this young man is now hoping that the rightful owner is some sort of master criminal because if the rightful owner does come forward, his efforts will have earned him a maximum of €10,000 out of a possible €100,000. So let’s just hope it belongs to a kingpin drug dealer rather than a clumsy billionaire.
