Pensioner's 'worthless' banknotes block sewers

A German pensioner flushed bundles of old banknotes worth a small fortune down the toilet because he thought they were now worthless.

"He flushed the cash down the loo because he didn't think it was worth anything," said police spokesman Uwe Voigt.

Police said he dumped some 60,000 deutschemarks - which the euro replaced in 2002 - into the bowl, unaware they could still be exchanged for about 30,000 euros ($49,785).

Sewage workers recovered about half the sodden currency from the 64-year-old's plumbing.

The remaining notes created a bottleneck in local sewers, where most were fished out.

"There may have been more cash that got away," said Mr Voigt.

Police said the man lived in "spartan" circumstances and had dried out the notes and taken them to a bank.

It was unclear if he had laundered the money first.

- Reuters
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Flushing them instead of, say. throwing them into the garbage?

Maybe he thought they would disolve like toilet paper. Who knows what that man was thinking.

Do people like this ever leave there house, read a newspaper, pick up a phone, or anything??? ?? How in the world could you believe that money just becomes worthless and it's a good idea to put it in your toilet? Even if you thought it was worthless a trip to the bank to find out for sure isn't worth your precious time?!? Good grief. I have to go shred a old painting I'm tired of by some guy named Picasso and flush it.