Vienna boy finds €100,000 floating in the Danube

It was one lucky day for an intrepid boy who jumped into a river, as police in Vienna are investigating how hundreds of thousands of euro could have ended up in the Danube.

A boy found €500 bills floating in the Danube in Vienna Image by Eric Caballero / CC BY 2.0

On Saturday, a boy who was passing by the riverside, noticed the bills and jumped in to retrieve them. Passersby believing it to be a suicide attempt, alerted the police. When the police arrived at the scene and realised the boy was simply attempting to save bills of money from the water, they proceeded to help him gather up the €100 and €500 bills in nets.

Reports in Austria said that the police had originally believed the money to be counterfeit, but that further investigation revealed that it was genuine and that no criminal activity could be traced back to it. They are continuing to investigate the mystery.

Vienna, Austria. Image by Emmanuel Dyan / CC BY 2.0

Under Austrian law the finder of a sum of money is entitled to 5% to 10% of it. If no one successfully claims the money within the year, then the finder gets to keep the entire sum. So it could’ve been one lucky today for an intrepid young man.

To read more:

Wildlife watching in the Danube delta

Lucky teen finds gold bar while swimming in German alps