Dee Why Village Plaza: Woman finds $4500 cash in public toilet and hands it in to police

A woman who went to answer the call of nature at a public loo in a busy Dee Why shopping centre found $4500 in cold hard cash. What did she do next?

A woman on the northern beaches found $4500 in a public toilet on the weekend. What did she do with it? Picture: istock

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What would you do if you found a big wad of cash in a public toilet?

One northern beaches’ woman faced that dilemma when she came across $4500 accidentally left in the ladies’ toilets at a busy shopping centre.

The 52-year-old Dee Why woman was out shopping at the Dee Why Village Plaza on Sunday afternoon when she had to answer the call of nature.

A local woman found a large wad of cash in the ladies loo at the Dee Why Village Plaza, Dee Why. Picture: Supplied

Inside the public facility she noticed a women’s clutch bag. When she opened it, she saw that it was stuffed with cash and a smaller bag containing what police described as a “white granular material”.

Clutching the clutch bag, the woman immediately made her way to the Dee Why Police Station about 400m away and handed the bag over at the front desk.

An officer counted the cash in front her. The total? A cool $4500.

After finding the cash, the woman went straight to the Dee Why Police Station. Picture: News Corp

The officer also told the good Samaritan that the white granular material was, in fact, salt.

Police quickly contacted security guards at the plaza.

They said a woman who worked for a Vietnamese business owner at the shopping centre had just reported to her boss that she had left the bag of cash in the plaza’s bathroom where she had stopped on the way to the bank.

“The business owner was able to describe the bag and the amount of cash to police,” a police spokesman said.

If a person finds a significant amount of money, or valuable property, and does not hand it in, they could face a criminal charge, Picture: Supplied

“They also explained that in Vietnamese culture salt is meant to bring a person luck.

“This time, they were very lucky.”

Northern Beaches Police also wanted to point out that if a person finds a significant amount of money or property and does not hand it in, they could face a criminal charge of larceny by finding, which has a maximum sentence of five years in jail.