A woman who lost the $500 cash she had just withdrawn from an automatic teller machine in Alexandra, is appealing to the better nature of the person who claimed the "windfall".
The woman from the Alexandra area, who wanted to remain anonymous, was feeling unwell as she keyed her account pin number into the machine next to Alexandra Paper Plus yesterday afternoon.
Her elderly parents in the North Island had sent the money for Christmas presents for their four grandchildren as well as Christmas dinner treats for the family.
"I remember standing outside Paper Plus, hearing someone else using the money machine and all of a sudden I kind of woke up and thought 'Oh God, what have I done with the money I withdrew?'"
She had either left it in the machine or lost it somewhere nearby and hoped the person who found it would hand the money in to police or to staff at Paper Plus.
"Someone must have a windfall of $500 and they might be happy about it, but I'm hoping someone honest will come forward and return the money - or what's left of it - no questions asked," she said.
Constable Dave Greaves said he would like to return the money to its rightful owner but nobody had come forward yet with the missing cash.
Police would be making further inquiries about the incident, which would include talking to bank staff about the possibility of video footage taken at the machine.
