We've all heard the stories of cheapskates who seem to die in poverty, but were later discovered to be millionaires. Have you ever wondered where they hide their money? What about criminals? Where do they put their money?
Not everyone trusts banks or investments. Some people build their wealth in unconventional ways. Maybe someone you know is hiding cash. Or perhaps an eccentric person had once owned your house and placed a rainy day fund in an unusual location. Know where to look?
If you want some ideas, here are the top 10 most unusual places people have hidden money – and even better, where other people have found it. You may want to purchase Purell and Latex gloves before you get started. It just depends on how much you want other people's money.
10 Money hidden in the bathroom
A place where people wash off dirt with lots of water is the last place we would expect to find a bank. Maybe that's why some people consider bathrooms a good place to hide their money.
In the United States, a contractor once found 182.000 US dollars in a bathroom. He told the homeowner about his surprise discovery, and then the trouble began. Their fortune became public knowledge because they disagreed on how to divide the money. As a result, 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne, the wealthy businessman who hid the Depression-era bills, also received a share of the loot.
In another incident, British police discovered nearly £38 in a toilet cistern.610 after raiding a home in the West Midlands with a drug warrant. Resident Helen Ross, 41, had no regular income, but quickly claimed she had won the money by playing at casinos and online bingo.
Ross also owned a Range Rover worth 40.000 pounds. Police investigated her banking transactions to verify her claim of casino windfall, but could find no evidence of such winnings.
For years, Ross drove expensive cars and took lavish vacations, even though she had little income. It is an example of a criminal finding an innovative way to hide wealth acquired through illegal activities.
9 A woman hid money in high heels
In Columbia, police officers and airport officials discovered a cash in the shoes of a woman who was acting suspiciously. The wad of 500 euro banknotes had been tucked into the heels of four wedge shoes.
Surprisingly, the woman only carried 5.950 euros in her bag, while she was 150.000 pounds she had in her shoes. This is another example of a person who would do anything to hide money.
8 cash hidden in a couch
When three college students bought a used couch from a charity store for $20, they had no idea of its actual value. Roommates Lara Russo, Cally Guasti and Reese Werkhoven discovered cash envelopes totaling 41.000 US dollars when they took the couch to their home in New Paltz. Despite their excitement, the students decided to return the money to its rightful owner.
It turned out that the money was kept on the couch by the husband of the woman who donated the furniture. The money meant decades of savings, including wages from the woman's job as a florist. She had been sleeping on the couch for years without being aware of the contents. Lately, however, back problems had led her daughter and son-in-law to replace the couch with a bed.
After returning the money, the students received 1.000 dollars as a reward for honesty.
7 Florida man hid money in his rectum
A Florida man became the subject of police jokes when he was caught with over 1.000 dollars in his rectum was caught. Pattreon Stokes stuffed the money into this unusual hiding place so the police couldn't find it. But this clever idea proved to be a prime example of stinky thinking.
When a police officer pulled Stokes over for speeding in August 2017, the deputy smelled marijuana in the car and conducted a search. He discovered rock cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, a small scale and a large sum of money.
Stokes was arrested and taken to Marion County Jail. But eventually the money disappeared. Stokes claimed police had already taken the money, but they knew they hadn't.
Then some eagle-eyed police officers saw $20 bills from Stokes' buttocks. This forced the officers to take a closer look and there were 1.Retrieved 090 dollars from the rectum of the accused drug dealer. Stokes is said to be "upset" about the whole affair.
6 A family has money saved up in their roof
A Muslim family in Bankstown (a suburb of Sydney, Australia) won a judgment against their neighbor for tricking their mentally disabled son into paying nearly 500.Had stolen 000 dollars from his attic. The Helou family hid their savings at home for religious reasons and kept only handwritten accounts of the sums they collected in their rooftop.
When her son saw her neighbor Giam Nguyen, a fruit shop owner, stealing some cash, police refused to proceed based on insufficient evidence. However, the Helous was firmly convinced that Nguyen was the culprit, especially after he spent his newfound wealth on reconstructing his current home and accumulating more properties.
The family filed a civil case against Nguyen. With the help of lawyers, the Helous were able to track the money and arrest Nguyen, prompting the judge to rule in favor of the Helou family. Although the defendant wrote several stories about the origin of his sudden wealth, the judge rejected them as unconvincing.
5 Money buried on a farm
During his reign, Pablo Escobar smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine every month.He earns so much money that every week 1.Spending $000 to buy rubber bands to tie up the money.
Escobar owned soccer teams and more than 800 villas in Colombia. He also donated huge sums to build schools, hospitals and more. Still, he could not spend it all. So he decided to dig money pits all over Colombia to hide his money.
A Colombian farmer named Jose Mariena Cartolos found one of Escobar's money pits after the government gave Cartolos a grant of 3.000 USD to start a palm oil plantation on his family's land. While Cartolos was digging a trench for irrigation on the land, he came across something strange.
After further investigation, found several large blue containers totaling about $ 600 million in cash. Unfortunately, the farmer could not keep the money because it was confiscated by Colombian authorities.
4 One woman swallowed $ 7.000 in life savings
In 2017, a Colombian woman discovered that her husband had cheated on her and decided to confiscate her savings of 7.to swallow $ 000 in cash. Sandra Milena Almeida, 28, initially pocketed the money in her home after discovering her husband's infidelity. She had planned to leave him.
But her husband found the money and insisted that half belonged to him. While they argued, the woman swallowed the bills so her husband couldn't get the money. The next day, Mrs. Almeida had severe abdominal pain and was taken to the hospital. However, she did not tell doctors what was wrong.
Nevertheless, X-rays showed that bundles of money caused gastrointestinal blockage. During the operation, doctors were able to collect about $ 5.Save 700 in $100 bills pulled from their bellies.
Mrs. Almeida is not the only person who practices this trick. In September 2015, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Nigeria arrested six suspects of money laundering, who spent $156 at a Lagos hotel.000 had swallowed. Allegedly, the men wanted to take the money to Brazil.
In 2017, a Nigerian man was arrested in eastern France after cash-strapped condoms were discovered in his stomach by an X-ray machine. The man almost got away with his stash. Then a sniffer dog smelled marijuana on some money hidden in the man's clothes. After further investigation, agents found the laundered money in his intestines.
3 A Chinese man hid money in a bedspread
In 2016, a Chinese man was blamed for the money he tried to hide from his wife in a bedspread being discovered by a dog. The animal did not hesitate to chew all the money into pieces.
The worst thing was that the dog was not even his. In northeastern China, the man and his wife were watching the golden retriever Hali for a friend. Hali had 3.Cost 800 yuan when the couple was sleeping. When they awoke to find the tattered mess, the dog looked up at them with innocent eyes.
The man admitted to his wife that he tried to hide the money from her by keeping it in the bedspread. Fortunately for his wife, the incident was funny.
2 A Californian man smuggled money in socks
In 2013, Antonio Rakigjija, a 51-year-old Californian, was driving home from Mexico, trying to use his socks to make nearly 130.000 US dollars to smuggle into the USA. Stopped by US customs in San Ysidro.
Rakigjija and his son Franco had both claimed they had nothing to explain from Mexico. The agent discovered marijuana in the back seat of Rakigjiya's car and proceeded to search both men. At this point, the elder Rakigjija revealed he had money in his socks, which was supposedly for business expenses.
He was subsequently charged with the crime of mass smuggling.
1 Ontario man hid $100.000 in a television
In the 1980s, an Ontario man stashed a cash box with an inheritance of 100.000 $ from his parents in a television. Thirty years later, workers at an Ontario recycling plant opened the supposedly worthless 1980s television and were shocked to find all those $50 bills still there.
Years earlier, the man had left the money in the facility and given the TV to a friend. In 2017, the boyfriend put the TV in the recycling plant. The employees were not legally obligated to return the cash, but they did anyway. Barrie police officers found the man and returned his inheritance. He didn't even know the money was missing.