A man lost his life savings of �80,000 (about $127,000) after he left it on the roof of his car and mistakenly drove off.Getty Images
When it comes to deciding where to keep your life savings, some options are better than others. The bank? Good idea. The roof of your car? Not such a good idea, as a pensioner in Britain has learned.
The 68-year-old man lost his life savings of £80,000 (about $127,000) last week after he left it on the roof of his car and mistakenly drove off.
The unidentified man, who was moving the cash between his home and his place of work, doesn't trust the banks, the Daily Mail reports.
So rather than put the money in an account, he usually kept it hidden under his bed. But after deciding to keep the cash nearby at all times, he prepared to take it with him to work.
"My car is never more than 10 feet from me at work so I can keep on eye on it," he told the Daily Mail. "That morning I left about 6:20 a.m. and didn't realize I had lost it until noon."
He raced home to see whether he had left it there, and then realized he must have put it on the roof of his car. A frantic search turned up the plastic bag the money had been stored in, but not the cash itself.
"I'm gutted," the man, who works as a painter and a "panel beater" (a British term for someone who repairs vehicle bodies), told the Daily Mail. "I don't hold out much hope of getting it back but if I do I will give a reward to whoever brings it back."
Police in Essex, near where the man lives, have called for the return of the cash. And, as the Mail notes, they've also urged people to keep their money in banks.