Safe containing €170,000 sent to be scrapped

Workers tasked with scrapping a safe at a steel plant in Hennigsdorf near Berlin couldn’t believe their eyes when euro bills floated towards them. The Berlin Postbank had accidently sent a safe containing 170,000 euros in cash to be scrapped.

Money on the street. Flickr (cc) FabianReichert

Initially the plant workers assumed a criminal act and contacted the police. But the Postbank was able to clarify that it had in fact been a mistake by a careless employee and as a result no charges were pressed.

Postbank spokesperson Ralf Palm told the local Hennigsdorfer Generalanzeiger newspaper that “all conceivable measures were being taken to get the money back."

The bank is in fact lucky that they were able to retrieve any of the money, as the scrapping company explained that the safe had already been shipped abroad. It was “a stroke of luck” that it turned up in Hennigsdorf again.