German kids hand out lost 15,000 euros in playground

Children in a school in Germany had a day to remember this week when four pupils found around 15,000 euros (22,000 dollars) and then handed it out to their friends in the playground, police said Friday.

The four, two boys and two girls aged between 10 and 13, found the bundle of cash stuffed in a dirty brown envelope on the way into their school in Frankfurt on Tuesday morning.

One worried child went to the teaching staff following the excited playground handout that followed, however, and the children were told to return the money.

“But since some were quite pleased by their new-found wealth, with many already making plans for what they would spend it on, collecting the money proved to be harder than handing it out,” police said in a statement.

By the time a patrol car arrived at the scene, around 12,000 euros had been collected, rising to 14,040 euros after teachers made a final appeal to their pupils’ consciences.

With the possible owner of the money, identified later as a 33-year-old Afghan man, unable to say exactly how much was in the envelope, it was unclear how much was still missing, police spokesman Karlheinz Wagner told AFP.

The possible owner, identified using passport copies and documents for a Chinese visa application also in the envelope, will only get his money back once he has provided documents proving it was his, Wagner added.

AFP