14 DAY TRIAL // An honest janitor from Sydney, Australia, has made national headlines after he turned in a huge amount of money he had found in a toilet, but his honesty paid off, as he was now allowed to keep most of the cash.
Chamindu Amarsinghe was tidying the ground-floor bathroom at Australian TV network Channel Nine's Docklands building in August 2011 when he stumbled upon a fortune in a toilet sanitary bin. The student found $100,000 (€72,700) in $100 (€72.7) and $50 (€36.4) notes, according to the Herald Sun.
“There was too much to count. I thought someone was playing a prank on me. But when I touched the notes ... I realized it was real money,” the student recalls.
His first thought was to tell authorities, so he immediately called his supervisor to report the cash find, who called the police. A plumber was called in and collected more than A$100,000 ($109,000/€79,300) from the toilet and the pipes.
“That's not my money, so I can't take it away. I don't know what the hell this money is doing here'. Someone could have put it there and planned to come back for it. I didn't want them to come back for it and find it gone and them come after me,” Chamindu said, trying to explain his actions.
Authorities started an investigation, but were not able to establish the origin of the money. Initially, a Sydney man was charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime, but the charges were later dropped.
This week, a Melbourne magistrate ruled that Mr. Amarsinghe, who is now studying IT in New Zealand, could keep $81,597 (€59,360) of the cash he found, given that since it was discovered, in August 2011, no one came forth to claim the money.
“There’s no reason why such honesty should go unrewarded,” magistrate Michael Smith said in the ruling, and investigators who worked on the case felt the same way.
The student was left baffled by the news that all that money was his to keep. I guess he didn't expect the adage “Finders, keepers” to apply in his case.
When asked about how he would spend the money, he said he would donate some of it to help disabled people, and some to a Buddhist temple in Berwick.
“I just want to spend my life in a normal way, find a job in IT and carry out that dream. I’m really, really lucky. I’m not going to waste it,” Chamindu said.