A MOUNTAIN hiker in Castellon province turned down a €400 reward after discovering a fanny bag containing €8,000 in cash on a trail.
Marga Marco Fernandez went on the Pico Pipa walk in the Vall d’Uixo on Tuesday and spotted the bag which she picked up.
She glanced around to see if she could spot the owner but she was alone.
Marga continued on her trek towards the top of the Pico mountain in the hope that she might see the bag’s owner enjoying the scenic view.
There was nobody there and she took a peek inside the bag and noticed a pair of glasses, a credit card, and what appeared to be €50 in cash.
Marga said: “As I started going down, I thought how unlucky the person would have been to have lost the pack and I shouted and looked around to see if anybody appeared, but I saw nobody.”
When she got home, she noticed something rigid on the back of the bag but didn’t open it.
Instead, Marga took a shower and went to the Vall d’Uixo Policia Local station to hand the fanny bag over.
“They took my name and phone number, but they didn’t look at what was inside, which was strange because I would have expected them to make a full inventory,” said Marga.
Shortly after returning home, she got a call from the police asking if knew about the bag’s contents.
“They told me that there was €8,000 and that the bag’s owner was at the station,” Marga explained.
It belonged to a German tourist who had his caravan in the Paraje de San Jose car park.
He apparently went up to the top of the Pipa walk twice to look for his lost property.
Police guessed the bag owner would have used the car park and spotted his German-plated vehicle there and left a note for him to go to the police station.
Marga returned there to meet him and he tried to give her €400 as a reward but she refused, saying that ‘I did what anyone else would have done’.
Her final comment says it all: “I asked myself, who goes up to Pipa with €8,000?”