A teenager from Nottinghamshire who fished a safe filled with money from a river says it is the 'best thing we have ever found'. George Tindale, 15, was magnet fishing with his dad Kevin, 52, in Lincolnshire when he happened upon the astonishing find.
Inside the safe the pair found 2,500 Australian dollars, equivalent to roughly £1,400. They had discovered the safe in the River Witham in Grantham at the beginning of April.
And, according to Lincolnshire Live, it just so happened the money had been swiped from Grantham businessman Rob Everett back in 2000. He has now been reunited with his cash thanks to George and his family, who live in Newark.
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They say they had no idea it was 'hot' property at the time. The banknotes survived because they were made from polymer and George was able to track down Mr Everett because of his shotgun certificate inside the safe.
"I would say this safe containing money was one of the best things we have ever found," George says.
"It is unusual to find a safe that is full. Normally they are just full of slop, empty wallets and boxes. We opened this one and it was full. It had some slop in it but the best thing we pulled out was a travel wallet full of Australian dollars that survived because they are made of plastic."
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His mum Denise Newton said Mr Everett's full name Robert William Everett was revealed when the shotgun certificate was photocopied, which narrowed down the search for him. They eventually found a phone number for one of his businesses and decided to call.
A message was passed to Mr Everett who then made contact with the family. Ms Newton said: "I nearly fell off my chair when Rob telephoned me. We did log the find with the police. It was a lot of money and we did not want anyone to think we had stolen it."
Mr Everett, who now runs Winkworth and the Money Options Group, recalled that the safe had been stolen from a previous office by a teenager, reports the Daily Star. He said the perpetrator was caught after he found a cap the burglar had left behind with their name stitched into it.
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The businessman praised George for his honesty, saying: "I was just amazed that they’d been able to track me down.
“For me, I just felt there are some really nice and good people in this world. They could have kept the money, they could have said they attempted to get hold of me." Mr Everett said that in addition to giving a small reward to George, he had also promised him a future "opportunity" at his wealth management firm after learning he was a talented mathematician.
"What’s good about it is that George is a good mathematician apparently, and I run a wealth management company now, and I’ve offered him work experience when he’s ready to give him something back, give him some opportunity," Mr Everett added.
George, who is sponsored by Online Magnets, and dad are chiefly interested in fishing debris from waterways to help the environment. The schoolboy chronicles his finds on his Magnetic G You Tube channel. He previously found a live grenade from the Witham at Stamp End in Lincoln in January 2020.
