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A 57-year-old private hire driver, surnamed Zhuo, recently lost S$14,000 in cash.

The unfortunate incident happened on Sep. 30 as Zhuo's wife was spring cleaning, and unknowingly threw out the bank notes, which were hidden in Zhuo's old clothes, reported Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min).

Spring cleaning gone wrong

Zhuo and his wife live at Block 116 Marsiling Rise.

Zhuo told Shin Min reporters that while spring cleaning their flat, his wife had discarded his old clothes in a rubbish bin at the HDB void deck.

However, one of the long-sleeved shirts that Zhuo's wife threw out contained 14 S$1,000 notes in its pocket, unbeknownst to her.

Zhuo explained that he had collected thousand-dollar notes, and continued to accumulate them after the Monetary Authority of Singapore discontinued their issuance in 2021.

"Whenever any of my friends had a thousand-dollar note, I would then exchange money with them, so that I could collect the notes," Zhuo shared.

Afraid that the thousand-dollar notes would be stolen, Zhuo had decided to hide them in the pocket of his shirt for safe-keeping.

He lamented: "But I also forgot to inform my wife that I had placed these notes in my old clothes. [...] Having placed them there for so long without issue, I did not expect to lose them due to spring cleaning."

Police report made

According to Shin Min, Zhuo immediately rushed down to locate his old clothes after realising they were missing from his closet.

However, by the time Zhuo and his wife combed through the void deck, the discarded bags of old clothes were gone.

Knowing that the chances of recovery were slim, Zhuo shared that he has since lodged a police report.

Zhuo told Shin Min reporters that he thinks it is possible that someone had taken away his clothes.

Zhuo has put up a copy of the police report at his void deck, in hopes that someone might come forward with information about his missing cash.

In response to Shin Min's queries, the police confirmed that they did receive a report, and that investigations are ongoing.

Under Section 403 of the Penal Code, dishonest misappropriation of property is an offence.

Illustration (a) of the section says that if someone finds a dollar not knowing to whom it belongs, and picks it up, that person has not committed the offence defined in the section.

However, according to Illustration (e), if someone finds a purse with money not knowing to whom it belongs, but later finds out the identity of the owner and still uses the money for himself, it is an offence.

Those found guilty of dishonestly misappropriating or keeping another person's property for their own use without attempting to find the owner may be jailed up to two years', fined, or both.

Top image via Shin Min Daily News