14 DAY TRIAL // Two teenagers traveling by train in the Oslo area in Norway have tracked down a woman leaving a bag of cash in one of the cars.
The teens recovered 467,200 kroner (€62,000, $81,500) in bills from the bag and turned everything in, News in English reports.
Upon discovering the bills, they swiftly thought of alerting the police. One of the students, identified as 16-year-old Hallstensen Bendik, noticed the handbag placed on one of the seats as he was walking by it.
The passenger carrying it most likely placed it there during the trip and forgot about it. The incident took place on a commuter train when Bendik was traveling from Ski, where he goes to school to the small town of Vestby.
The bills were arranged in stacks and protected in plastic sheets. Bendik and a female classmate waited for the owner to get back to her seat and decided to find her when she failed to show up.
“I thought the owner of the bag had just left her seat for awhile and would return, but nothing happened. [...] I asked my friend if it was her bag, and she said ‘no,’” he says.
They used the passport found inside the bag to identify and contact the proper owner of the money. An investigation showed that the large sum of cash had been obtained legally.
There is no information about whether or not the teenagers were offered a reward for turning in the money.
“I’m just a person who likes to think happy thoughts and has faith in others. [...] I like to think others would have done the same thing.
“I have read that the owner (of the handbag) was happily reunited with the money, and that’s the most important,” Bendik says.