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An elderly Japanese businessman buried 2.8 million pounds in his garden for safekeeping only to find it dug up by a thief, police said Thursday. Skip related content
The man in his 80s discovered the theft in October and died two months later. As he left no records, it took time for investigators to piece together the details.
The man, who was still serving on a corporate board when he died, had put cash into a container over four decades, repeatedly digging it up and then placing it back in the ground in his yard in southern Saga prefecture.
On October 10, he noticed at around 6:00 am that something was amiss.
"He noticed that there are signs that parts of his yard were dug up. Then he learned that the container in which he kept the money was gone," a local police official said.
Police were searching for the culprit behind the theft of the cash, estimated at 360 million yen (2.8 million pounds).
"He buried the money because financial institutions are offering only low interest rates, and he thought it was better to keep his cash himself," the official said.
"He chose to bury the cash in his garden to avoid damage from possible house fires or earthquakes," he said.
The businessman had recollected that the last time he had checked the money was in the middle of 2007, the official said.
