Last week, several tens of thousands of euros came floating into Zedelgem. And most of the money is still missing.

The recipient of this unlikely bounty was the Ruddervoordsestraat. According to a witness, the ground over a stretch of 100 metres was littered with €50, €100 and €200 banknotes. “It was as if it had rained money,” resident José Maertens told De Standaard. The money, it seems, was the loot from a burglary of a house in nearby Torhout. The suspects had thrown a safe from their car during a police chase.

Later, only two local residents showed up at the police station to hand anything in. These honest citizens returned some €11,000, described by police as “a fraction of the total amount stolen”.

Mayor Patrick Arnou has issued a call for Zedelgem’s residents to return the cash. “It bothers me that so many people have taken something that is not theirs,” he said. “Apart from anything else, it’s against the law to pick up money with the intention of holding on to it. We’ll be opening an investigation.”

To make matters simpler for the penitents – should there be any – Arnou will collect the money personally and “guarantee anonymity,” he said. But residents have to act fast. “The idea is not for people to hold on to this money for weeks.”