Tokyo police search for owner of $17.5K in cash found in recycling center trash

TOKYO -- An envelope containing 192 10,000-yen notes -- for a total of 1.92 million yen (about $17,500) -- was found among paper trash at a recycling center in the Tokyo suburban city of Higashimurayama on Sept. 20.

The money was reported to the Metropolitan Police Department's Higashimurayama Police Station, where it is currently being kept as a lost article while a search for the owner takes place. If three months pass without the owner coming forward, the money will become the recycling center's property.

According to the Higashimurayama Police Station, a recycling center worker called police at around 9 a.m. on Sept. 20 to say that "some cash has turned up in the paper trash." An envelope containing the 192 bills was discovered by staff as they separated newspapers, flyers and other paper waste. The center reportedly receives waste primarily from the western Tokyo cities of Higashimurayama, Higashiyamato, Kodaira and Higashikurume.

(Japanese original by Maki Kihara, Tokyo City News Department)