How $220K Turned Up in a Tree

Money doesn’t fall from the sky, but a tree in Germany made it rain on passersby last week. A bag of money containing €200,000, or roughly $220,000, was hung in a tree in a campsite near the northern town of Mirow, the Local reports. Police say visitors picked up €50 notes after an elastic band keeping the bag closed melted off during a brutal heat wave (the AP reports a record 104.5-degree temp was recorded Sunday). "There are decent and honest citizens who immediately informed the police," says the town's mayor, per the news outlet NDR. There is also a man—the campsite's owner—who has stepped forward to lay claim to the money, and police are investigating his claim.

But that man is rumored to be having marital problems, and a fire broke out last week at a house he owns. In a slightly different version, UPI says "there is suspicion" that the money bag is linked to a fire at a cottage on the campsite property. The evidence "come[s] together to suggest he was hiding his money from his wife up a tree," says Gizmodo UK. As for the finders, they are legally entitled to keep just 3% of the apparent nest egg, or roughly $6,600. If no one can prove ownership of the cash within six months, they get to keep the whole thing. (Read about a man who slept in his car to guard his windfall—a discovered treasure possibly worth tens of thousands of dollars.)