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Airport cleaner finds gold bars worth Dh1.2m in garbage bin

Incheon - Police suspect that someone apparently threw them away in the bin in a hurry to escape being caught.

A South Korean cleaner at Incheon International Airport is set to become a wealthy man after he stumbled upon gold bars while cleaning rubbish bin. It was just another day for this cleaner until he started to clean a bin and found seven gold bars in it, it is reported.

According to The Korea Times reports, the cleaner whose identity has not been revealed, discovered seven gold bars worth $330,000 (Dh1.2 million approx) wrapped in newspapers while emptying rubbish bin at the airport on 26 April. Each bar weighs 1kg (2.2 lbs) and police suspect that someone apparently threw them away in the bin in a hurry to escape being caught.

The initial probe as of now revealed that the gold is not connected to criminal activity. If police find no link of smuggling, the cleaner will be able to make a substantial claim on his discovery as South Korea follows a 'Finders Keepers' law on goods that are recovered when there is no known owner.

However, the cleaner will have to wait for six months before he can take ownership of the gold bars as according to the Lost Articles Act legislation, the said period is given to the original owner to come forward and claim the lost goods.
However, The Korea Times stated that in such cases the one who finds the good becomes the outright owner but will only be able to legitimately claim between 5 and 20 per cent of the gold's total price, a maximum of $65,000 (Dh239,000 approx) under the law. Further, whether the police or the government will take the rest is not yet clear.