Woman throws out $10k worth of cash by accident

Woman throws out $10k worth of cash by accident

A woman from China said she could not get over the pain of having thrown away a bagful of money, which has been lost since she flung it downstairs by mistake. She had hurled it at her daughter in a moment of anger.

Li Xinhua, 35, claimed that the plastic bag contained about 47,000 yuan (S$10,200) in Chinese currency, which was supposed to cover her living expenses here for the year, including payment for her daughter's school fees and housing rental.

"How are we to get by now?" she said to evening daily Lianhe Wanbao yesterday. The incident happened on Sunday at the flat on the 13th floor of Block 28, New Upper Changi Road, where she has rented a room.

According to Ms Li, when she grabbed and threw the money, she was aiming it at her six-year-old daughter, who had refused to go to bed that night although it was past 1am.

"Earlier, she had been watching the Chinese drama Prince Of Lan Ling with the landlord in the living room," said Ms Li.

"But when the show ended, she still remained in front of the television. So I started beating her and she ran into the corridor."

Ms Li said it was at that moment that she mistakenly grabbed the bag - which she had placed on a table in the living room as she would be going to the money changer - to hurl at her daughter.

She said the landlord knew what she had taken and tried to warn her. But it was too late as the bag went over the parapet.

They then hurried down to the small park next to their block, but the bag was nowhere to be found.

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Ms Li said a resident living on the second floor claimed a man found the bag and quickly ran away with it.

The resident said the man, who was in his 20s and about 1.75m tall, was sitting on a bench using his phone when the bag landed by his side.

Ms Li said she has since kept going downstairs to see whether the finder would come back to return her money.

She said a young man on Monday night moved suspiciously to the bench as he seemed to be avoiding the closed-circuit television cameras in the area.

"I went up to him to ask whether he saw the money, but he said a Singaporean had picked it up. He said he was a Malaysian," Ms Li said, adding that the man must be lying.

Ms Li is a study mama (a foreign woman who accompanies her child during the latter's education in Singapore) here with her daughter, who is enrolled at a local kindergarten.

The divorcee said she came to Singapore in 2011 to work, but lost her job within a month.

She said the money was partly borrowed from friends and partly from proceeds from the sale of a house back home.

Police confirmed that a report was filed on "dishonest misappropriation of property" on Sunday morning at the block where Ms Li lives.

They are investigating the case.

As to whether Ms Li's act constitutes a high-rise littering offence, the National Environment Agency said yesterday it is aware of the incident and is investigating the matter.

myp@sph.com.sg


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