On Thursday, when an elderly man suddenly realised that he was missing more than $20,000 in cash he withdrew from a Swiss bank, he concluded that he had been robbed but fate had other plans.
A couple picked up the wad of notes, stuffed into an envelope, and dropped it in the street, and went to his home to return the cash in full, police confirmed on Friday.
Officers claimed that the man, who is mute, went to the bank in the small town of Martigny in southern Switzerland and withdrew 20,000 Swiss francs ($21,260).
When he got home, he realised that his envelope was missing.
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Assuming that he must have been pickpocketed on the way home, he went to the police to report the money stolen.
It turned out, however, that he was not the victim of foul play, but had simply dropped the envelope as he got into his car, parked outside the bank.
A couple found the envelope, which in addition to the wad of notes contained a withdrawal slip that included the man’s address.
They went to his home to return the cash in full.
The man was so grateful, he gave the couple 500 francs, police disclosed, hailing a ‘lovely story of citizen honesty.’
In another report, in lieu of strengtheing up their defense and military powers, Switzerland has finally signed a controversial contract on Monday which seeks to procure 36 US F-35 stealth fighter jets at a cost of more than six billion francs ($6.2 billion).
‘National Armaments Director Martin Sonderegger and the Swiss F-35A Program Manager Darko Savic signed the procurement contract on 19 September 2022 at armasuisse in Bern,’ said armasuisse, the country’s arms procurement agency.
‘With this, the procurement of 36 F-35A is contractually agreed,’ it added.
It has also been revealed that the selection of the F-35 by the Swiss government in June 2021 had sparked some controversy, particularly in light of the cost overruns of the fighter jet program in the United States but a Swiss parliamentary investigation did not call into question the selection of the fighter.