OAP Loses £80k After Leaving It On Car Roof

dowie · 25 Nov 2010 at 20:40

If he doesn't trust banks then why did he keep it in the form of bank notes.

Supposing the entire banking system did collapse or the UK experienced some hyper inflation Zimbabwe/Germany-postWW1 style he'd just be left with bits of paper so not much difference to if he'd been stashing it in a bank accumulating interest.

ckjocelyn · 25 Nov 2010 at 20:41

epic fail. could bought his own safe for £400 ish. or just put it in a bank.

ojrules · 25 Nov 2010 at 20:43

matt_fsr said:
Currency from 40 years ago wouldnt be spendable now - how and when did he exchange his outdated notes for new versions, and which banks did he do this at? Huh?

was just going to say this....

Neil79 · 25 Nov 2010 at 20:51

If i found 80k i'd keep 60-70 and put the rest in charity!

But then again i'd also feel a mass load of guilt thinking it might be some mother with children

Mark A · 25 Nov 2010 at 22:08

I'd probably hold onto it for a while and see what happens. No doubt the notes would need to be swapped at the bank of England though, not sure how you could get around that without looking very suspicious.

Downsy · 25 Nov 2010 at 23:06

What would you do if you found £80k in a bag with the guy's name and address on it, took it round to his house and gave it back to him and not got a thanks, let alone a reward?

Energize · 25 Nov 2010 at 23:10

jaybee said:
If I found 80K I'm not sure I would hand it in as my argument would be that the person would be 95% likely to either:

1: Not need it
2: Be scum/dealer/theiving person
3: Not deserve it or earnt it
4: Combination of above

So I'd probably pocket it and then not be stupid with it. Aka, not walk into Barclays and pay in 80K in a lump sum.

I would feel bad for doing this...for a while...then I'm sure I'd get over it. Does that make me a bad person. Not really imo.

That's some wishful, or perhaps, delusional thinking there.

Guest2 · 25 Nov 2010 at 23:18

70 years of saving - wouldnt the money be mostly old notes that are worthless anyway?

Tefal · 25 Nov 2010 at 23:20

maybe he was dodging inheritance tax and it's already made it's way to whoever he wants to have it.

mast3r · 26 Nov 2010 at 09:47

i cant understand how you can just leave 80,000 in the roof of your car, i do hope it is returned, minus the finders fee.

Podmonkey · 26 Nov 2010 at 09:56

From his job I think he would have found it quite hard, if not impossible to save 2 grand a year 40 years ago and as someone else said surely half of it would be old notes that he would have had to swap in a bank. The story also states they found the plastic sleaves in the area but nothing else suggesting someone found the bag and proceeded to take out all the money from the packets in the open street before wandering off. I guess it could happen but it does seem a little iffy.

Angilion · 26 Nov 2010 at 10:12

Guest2 said:
70 years of saving - wouldnt the money be mostly old notes that are worthless anyway?

Bank of England notes never expire. You can't use withdrawn notes for transactions(*), but you can get them changed by a bank. They probably won't like it because they have to return the notes to the Bank of England and it's fuss for them, but the notes are still valid and if a bank just won't do it you can get the BoE to change them yourself.

* Well, you can if the other party agrees to it. You can use anything if both parties agree to it. Money is essentially just widely accepted barter tokens.

mediaman · 26 Nov 2010 at 10:15

steve-h said:
The question is... if you found 80K - would you give it back to him?

No way pedro.

Angilion · 26 Nov 2010 at 10:16

Downsy said:
What would you do if you found £80k in a bag with the guy's name and address on it, took it round to his house and gave it back to him and not got a thanks, let alone a reward?

I'd be a bit irritated due to the scale of it, but that's all.

I don't return things I find in order to get a reward. I return them because I'm not a thief.

Combat squirrel · 26 Nov 2010 at 10:19

jaybee said:
If I found 80K I'm not sure I would hand it in as my argument would be that the person would be 95% likely to either:

1: Not need it
2: Be scum/dealer/theiving person
3: Not deserve it or earnt it
4: Combination of above

So I'd probably pocket it and then not be stupid with it. Aka, not walk into Barclays and pay in 80K in a lump sum.

I would feel bad for doing this...for a while...then I'm sure I'd get over it. Does that make me a bad person. Not really imo.

I agree, id just use it to fund my life, petrol, food etc and keep it locked up in a decent safe bolted to my wall in the loft. Keep going to work etc but spend little on my card - just say im being careful with money, jobs a good one.

Judgeneo · 26 Nov 2010 at 10:25

at 2% yearly interest in a bank, he would have £120k, now he has nothing.

Guest2 · 26 Nov 2010 at 10:26

Judgeneo said:
at 2% yearly interest in a bank, he would have £120k, now he has nothing.

Some else is pretty happy though!

Greebo · 26 Nov 2010 at 10:47

Judgeneo said:
at 2% yearly interest in a bank, he would have £120k, now he has nothing.

It's worse than that if you look at historic interest rates. If you assume that he put exactly £2,000 away per annum starting in 1970, he would have have approximately £340,000 today.

Remember we had long periods when the bank of england base rate was above 15% and you could get 10%+ in a savings account plus his interest is compounded every year as he is not touching his savings.

Nix · 26 Nov 2010 at 11:06

I used to walk around there to get to work many moons ago. The road itself comes off the A127 and a lot of traffic does tend to use it, so it wouldn't surprise me if someone in a car has pulled over, discovered what's in the bag and taken off with it or someone's found it when walking back with their shopping from the giant supermarket that's just out of picture. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were the OAP, chances are the money's long gone and never to be seen again.