CAUSE FOR DIVORCE: MAN HIDES $15K IN OVEN, WIFE COOKS IT

Ouch, that really had to hurt!

UP IN SMOKE: MAN HIDES $15,000 IN OVEN… AND THEN HIS WIFE TURNS IT ON WHILE HE’S OUT
Father of two thought it would be safe because his wife ‘never used the oven’

By Emma Reynolds

Mail Online
July 26, 2012

A man who hid $15,000 (£10,000) in cash in his oven was left penniless after his wife turned it on while he was out.

The father of two, from Sydney, Australia, sold his beloved Toyota Supra sports car on Saturday afternoon and stashed the wads of notes in his kitchen oven.

He said he believed the cash would be safe in the oven because his wife never used it.

It was a decision he regretted yesterday when his distraught wife revealed that the money had gone up in smoke.

She had turned on the oven to pre-heat some chicken nuggets for their two girls and inadvertently cooked the cash.

'It was everything I had,' he told ninemsn, declining to be named out of embarrassment.

'I've got nothing to my name. That money was supposed to go towards my mortgage.

'I missed a payment on Monday. I told them "I'll pay tomorrow" but then the money was burnt.'

After learning what had happened, he set off to his bank in an attempt to deposit the money - but the teller refused to accept the charred notes.

'I was quite insulted, he said. 'I asked her to send it to the RBA, I told her "please, it's all I got" but she didn't want to.'

A spokesman for the Merrylands branch of Westpac offered an apology today and said the bank would do 'whatever we can do within the guidelines' to help him.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has a clear policy on damaged and incomplete banknotes and advises people to take their damaged notes to banks.

'If several pieces of the same banknote are presented, the Reserve Bank's policy is for each piece to be worth a share of the value in proportion to its size,' the RBA policy reads.

'The combined value paid should be the face value of the original banknote.'

If less than 20 per cent of the note is missing, full face value is paid, but if between 20-80 per cent of the note is missing, it is valued in proportion with the percentage remaining.

If more than 80 per cent of the banknote is missing, no payment is made.