Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 12, 2026
1 min readLast updated: February 12, 2026
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Italian police in Porto Cesareo recovered gold ingots accidentally discarded at a waste plant, valued at 120,000 euros.
ROME, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Police in southern Italy have salvaged a box of gold ingots from a waste-sorting plant after an absent-minded resident accidentally threw out the treasure with his household rubbish, officers said on Thursday.
The man walked into a Carabinieri police station in Porto Cesareo, near the city of Lecce, to report that a casket containing 20 gold bars, worth about 120,000 euros ($142,000), had vanished, the police said in a statement.
Investigators quickly traced the movements of the man, who was not named, and reviewed security-camera footage.
The images suggested the box had been tossed into a public bin at a nearby beach resort, and further investigations revealed it had been transferred to the local waste disposal facility.
"After several hours of careful sifting, the officers managed to find the box which, though damaged, still contained all the gold bars ... which were then returned to their rightful owner," the statement said.
($1 = 0.8415 euros)
(Reporting By Gavin Jones, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
A gold ingot is a piece of gold that has been refined and cast into a specific shape, typically a bar or a block, for easy handling and storage.
Police are responsible for investigating financial crimes, which may include fraud, money laundering, and theft, to ensure justice and protect the financial system.
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