One week ago, a couple left CHF 144,000 in a bag on a tram in Basel. The bag was found and handed to the police by a public transport employee.
The couple were on their way to visit their daughter when they left a bag containing 144,000 francs in a tram. Once returned to the police it was then given back to the couple, much to their surprise.
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According to Le Matin this act of honesty is not an isolated one in Switzerland.
Last year, a family from the canton Thurgau, who found a trail of money on the ground at Zurich airport, handed the CHF 1,400 they found to staff at a Swiss Rail counter.
An even larger sum was handed in in 2014. A man found a small black pouch on a tram in Geneva. Inside was more CHF 20,000. He took the pouch and its contents to the police.
Jean-Philippe Pittet, a spokesperson for Lausanne police, said “A few months ago a person handed in tens of thousands of francs. Money that has not yet been claimed.”
There are worse places to lose money than in Switzerland it seems.
Do you have any similar stories of acts of honesty? If you do please share them in the comment box below.
Full Le Matin article (in French)
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Giles Pearman says
In 1983 I was on holiday in Switzerland with a friend. We’d been camping in the mountains near Crans Montana, and on the day we were due to move on caught the bus from Crans down to Sierre. We had put our passports, travellers cheques, rail tickets and wallets in one small ruck sack for convenience. When we got off the bus in Sierre it was no where to be seen. After some mild to extreme panic – we managed to explain to the bus driver that we must have left the bag at the bus stop in Crans. No problem he said. His brother was a police officer up there and he would call him from the bus station and ask him to pop along to the bus stop to find the bag and put it on the next bus down to Sierre. He just assumed it would still be there. Coming from the UK we assumed otherwise. We had to wait a couple of hours and in the absence of mobile phones without news. It was miserable. Of course the bag eventually showed up on the bus. Only in Switzerland.
Sadly since moving to Switzerland in 2008 both my wife and I have had our wallets stolen – my wife from her handbag in a supermarket, and me by a pickpocket. As a result I’m no longer sure we would be so lucky if we repeated the ruck sack error, but oddly I still like to think we would be. There remains an overriding sense that this place is different.
Srenim says
My first reaction was “How and Why” ? !
This has never been raised-reported
zqi says
About 10 years ago I found 500 CHF on the sidewalk outside of Palexpo , apparently it fell out of someone’s pocket. I immediately took the money to the Administration office. Weeks later when no one claimed it, it was sent to the Loss and Found bureau in Geneva. After 5 years the money was still unclaimed and the L&F office wrote me to come in and collect the money. There was a 50 frs charge, the 450 frs I gave anonymously to the cancer research foundation. As the writer above wrote : do unto others as you would like done onto you.
H. says
Thieves are everywhere in the world, unfortunately. In 2012, my appartment got burgled, someone stole my wallet out of my handbag in the cram-packed train from Lausanne to Geneva and my bicycle got stolen in Geneva (although it had two locks on it)… all in the same year. I never saw my wallet, the bike or my sparse jewellery again.
So for what it’s worth, I do think the theft rates are pretty high around lake Geneva. @Le News, do you have any statistics in comparison to other countries or other regions in Switzerland?
I do agree most people in Switzerland tend to “do the right thing” and turn in lost wallets and money to the police. I know a boy who was maybe 8 at the time and who found 20 CHF note and turned it in to the police with his mother.
Bill says
I left my briefcase at a tram stop. Inside was my passport and a laptop. A very nice lady found it and turned into the police. Only in Switzerland!
Dean Leech says
Sometimes the acts of honesty are not 10,000 , 20,000 or even 144,000 which mean so so much to some that loose them and can be their life savings
I walked into a local post shop
Took my number to wait
Went to the counter when called
And sitting on the counter was a two hundred Swiss franc note which I didn’t notice at first but when I placed my hands on the counter and it moved I realized what it was but I didn’t see who was at the counter because I was on my phone reading emails
I chased outside to find the person to no avail so when I asked the counter lady she had an invoice that the person had paid with their address on it so I left the money with her to get to them
In swiss 200chf is not a lot of money and doesn’t buy to much but I just thought what if they really needed it and the person was old on a budget and it was my old mum or grandma or yours
” do unto others as you would like done unto you….”
Welcome to Switzerland have a nice day……what a great honest country