Caleño burns $25,000 in the oven
By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
A photographer from the city of Cali accidentally burnt his brother´s savings after forgetting to remove the money from the kitchen oven.
For the past three years, the photographer had been receiving cash transfers of 1 million to 2 milllion pesos (500 to 1,000 USD) from his brother, who was working in Spain and was saving up the money to buy a house in Cali.
He stored the money in the kitchen oven, thinking it was the safest place to store the thick wads of 50,000 peso bills that he regularly received at a local money transfer office.
Once the photographer´s brother had saved up 50 million pesos, he decided to return to Colombia to use his money to buy a house.
But as the photographer went to pick up his brother up at the airport, the rest of the family decided to cook a welcome-home lasagna in same oven where the 50 million pesos were stored.
Nobody noticed that the money was also there and they ended up cooking it slowly along with the food.
The forgetful photographer refused to reveal his identity to the press but granted an interview to Caracol TV.
“It was a mistake,” he said. “I don´t regret it, because what has to happen has to happen,” he added with his back turned towards the camera.
For a week the unlucky family attempted to clean up and restore hundreds of burnt 50,000 peso bills in order to exchange them for new ones at the local branch of the Banco de la Republica, Colombia´s Central Bank.
They managed to recover 32 million out of the original 50 million pesos.
The photographer and his brother are said to be working together now to recover the lost funds.
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