Shredded Baht Bills Found In Trash Puzzles Police

October 8, 2012

A volunteer picking up trash in Udon Thani found a plastic bag of what seemed to be 20 baht and 100-baht banknotes cut into tiny pieces. Police are checking to see if the money is fake, and if not, they want to contact the person who shredded the bills to find out the reason behind it.

UDON THANI – October 7,2012 [PDN]: at 10:30 a.m., a report of a trash bag containing cut-up money was received by Pol. Capt. Wisanu Pimpo, vice suppression inspector of Muang Udon Thani police station.

It was reported that someone had found a plastic bag of Thai banknotes in 20 baht and100 baht denominations that had been cut into small pieces. The bag had been discarded near a trash bin located on a soi next to Udonpichairak School in Udon Thani metropolitan municipality.

When police arrived at the scene, they discovered many passersby crowding around to look at the money, which was in a green plastic bag. When police opened the green plastic bag, they saw plenty of small pieces of 20 baht banknotes and some 100 baht notes.

The person who found the bag of shredded money was Mrs. Chuenjai Brody, age 41, the chairman of Pichairak community. She told police that in the morning she had heard a radio broadcast encouraging people in the community to make monthly cleanups of their sois and other public places.

So Mrs. Chuenjai did her civic duty, and while she was picking up trash outside a rubbish bin, she saw a green plastic bag, and used the handle of the rake to pick it up. But the bag had been torn, exposing some of green paler bank notes that appeared to be money. But she wasn’t sure, so she asked some neighbors to look at the small pieces, and they agreed that it was money, so they called the police.

However, the bank notes have not been examined closely yet to determine if they are real or fake, said Pol. Col. Kowit Jarearnwattanasak, the director of Muang Udon Thani police station. He said the cut up pieces of paper will be sent to check again at the provincial finance office. The paper fragments appear to have been cut by a paper shredder in an office, so the owner must be someone in the community, he speculated.

If it turns out to be real money, the police commander ordered that the discarded money be kept in the police station until they locate the owner and discover the reason for the shredding.