Man finds $222,000 in kitchen cabinets he bought on eBay

A man who found a wad of cash hidden in second-hand kitchen cabinets he bought on eBay has faced a devastating twist.

A German man thought he hit the jackpot when he discovered €150,000 ($A222,000) in cash in a set of kitchen cabinets he bought on eBay.

But much to his disappointment, Thomas Heller from Bitterfeld, Germany, soon realised he couldn’t keep the winning stash, The Sun reports.

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The man could not keep the money that he found in the oak veneer cabinets he purchased from eBay. Picture: Newsflash

The 50-year-old social housing managing director had bought the oak veneer cabinets from an elderly couple’s estate sale in nearby Halle on eBay earlier this month.

After some negotiating, Mr Heller managed to snap them up for a bargain price.

He said: “The piece was supposed to cost €300 ($444). But we were able to negotiate the price down €240 ($356).”

Mr Heller snapped up the kitchen cabinets for $356 from eBay. Picture: Newsflash

But Mr Heller soon discovered the cabinets were worth a little more than the asking price, when he found the forgotten secret stash of cash.

He said: “One [envelope] was open and a lot of bills were looking at me.”

He took it, along with another locked cash box, to the local police station.

“They opened the second, locked [box] in front of my eyes. There were larger bills in the envelopes. Two hundred, five hundred.”

He handed the cash into police. Picture: Newsflash

As Mr Heller had bought the cabinets through a third party, police took the case to the district court and began an investigation to find the kitchen’s original owner.

Investigators discovered that the money belonged to a 91-year-old woman from Halle, who was nursed in a retirement home after her husband passed away.

Police spokesperson Astrid Kuchta said: “The kitchen came from a household liquidation by an elderly couple from Halle.

“The two cash boxes were well hidden in areas of the furniture that were difficult to see.”

Ms Kuchta said the buyer had bought the kitchen from a service provider who sold it on behalf of the previous owner.

The seller, who was in fact the elderly couple’s grandson, told the newspaper MDR he had no idea about the money.

Under German law, keeping found cash worth €10 ($15) or more is a criminal offence and is classified as embezzlement, with offenders possibly facing up to three years in prison.

But thanks to a Good Samaritan clause, Mr Heller is now eligible for a 3 per cent finder’s fee, worth €4500 ($6660).

He did not reveal how he plans to spend the reward.

This story originally appeared in The Sun and has been reproduced with permission