Your money? Napier woman finds 'substantial' amount of cash on side of road

Yvonne Thacker from Napier found a stash of cash and wants to reunite it with its owner. Photo / Paul Taylor

It was just another day for Napier resident Yvonne Thacker, that is, until she found a substantial amount of cash on the side of the road.

She was at the post office in the suburb of Marewa sending a birthday present to her daughter in Melbourne, but upon leaving, she noticed a wad of cash lying in the gutter on the side of the road.

"When I saw it on the ground, I thought 'goodness gracious!' So I picked it up and put it in my handbag. I didn't realise how much money there was until I got home," she said.

"It's a lot of money, I don't know how it ended up there, I don't know whether it was an elderly person or someone else. I mean, how did they not put the money in their purse, or did it fall out of their pocket? I really don't know."

Thacker went home and called her granddaughter, Danielle Thacker, who posted the find on various Hawke's Bay Facebook pages and contacted the Napier Police Station.

"I've had multiple messages and comments from people asking if it was their money, people were giving us certain amounts, but the right person hasn't come forward yet," Danielle Thacker said.

"The police said nobody has put a report in saying it's missing yet, so we're just going to have to wait and see."

Thacker said if they didn't get the right person by the end of Thursday, she would hand the money into the police station on Friday.

Thacker gave limited information about the exact amount of money or the exact location it was found, in case scam artists tried to take advantage of the situation.

Between 20 and 50 people had since messaged Thacker on Facebook hoping it was theirs.

"If it were me or someone else's family, losing that kind of money would certainly put a dent in my week and I would hate to think of kids going without food," she said.

"So that's definitely the reason we want the owner to come forward."