Lost £20,000 on a flight and found it 13 years later

Lost £20,000 on a flight and found it 13 years later<br><br>I live in the UK and had my first child in 2013. I had a 5 week paternity leave and our baby was 5 months old at the time. We decided to go on holiday to Paris. We both love Paris, its only an hour from London and the baby had been to Spain the month before so we thought why not Paris. We live in London and I work for a bank. I live a nice life.<br><br>In September 2014, we flew from Central London to Paris on Eurostar, due to not feeling right flying with an infant. We were moving to Australia in January 2015. We lived in London but were moving to Australia. We were in the process of selling our house and had closed the sale. We were in the process of buying a house in Australia. We had everything sorted.<br><br>I received the money from the sale of our house and was moving £200,000 to my bank in Australia. For reasons I will never know, I decided to divide the money into two. £180,000 and £20,000. I sent the £180,000 through transfer wisdom. I took the £20,000 as cash. I had no idea why I was doing it, I thought maybe I wanted to keep some money outside of the banks. I had no idea. This was the first time in my life I had ever taken more than £2,000 out of the bank. I was always afraid of having too much cash on me.<br><br>The day came that we were moving to Australia. We sold the house and had closed the sale. We were moving to Australia the day after our trip to Paris. The plan was to go to Paris and return to London for a day then fly to Australia. We were in the process of booking our flights from Australia to Paris and then Paris to Australia. I had a duffel bag and it had the £20,000 in it. We left for Paris and had an amazing trip.<br><br>On our way back to London, I was carrying two small bags. One had the cash in it. The other had the tickets. I don't know what happened at the time but I have an idea. We were on the Eurostar and it was empty and short. I had to take the pram with a sleeping baby in it and two small bags. I was tired and the baby was also sleeping. I may have left the bag behind or had to leave the station in a rush. I do not know. All I know is that the duffel bag with the cash was gone. We returned to London and noticed the bag was missing. I was in a state of panic. I thought £20,000 was gone. I was not sure if I left it in Paris or on the train.<br><br>I tried to get in touch with Eurostar but they said that they didn't have the bag and I may have left it in Paris. I tried to contact the station in Paris but they also said no. I have no idea what happened to that bag. I lost £20,000 and thought it was gone for good. That was in 2014. I forgot about it over time.<br><br>Fast forward to 2022. Covid has passed and I was going on a trip to Paris. I flew from Australia to Paris and was thinking about my 2014 trip. I was thinking about the money I lost. I got to the station in Paris and remembered the day I lost the cash. I was walking through the station and thinking about it. I was thinking maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. I walked into a lottery shop and bought a ticket. Maybe I would win the lottery. I was walking back to the station then saw a lost and found. I walked into the lost and found and asked the guy "Excuse me but this may sound strange but if someone lost a bag with £20,000 in 2014 would you guys still have it?". He looked at me and said yeah let me check. He went into the back and looked through CCTV footage and checked their system. After 10 minutes, he came back and said "Your £20,000 bag is here". I was shocked.<br><br>He showed me the CCTV footage of me walking into the station and losing the bag. He also showed me the bag. It was the exact same bag. The money was still there. I couldn't believe it. They also had my contact info and knew it was my bag. They tried to contact me but I changed my email address and phone number when I moved to Australia. I have no idea how they kept the bag for that long. The guy at the lost and found said that they have a policy of keeping lost items for 10 years. He said that it was a good thing I found it as they were going to throw it away the next day. I couldn't believe it. I had £20,000 back in my hands. I couldn't believe it.<br><br>I asked the guy at the lost and found how he found the bag. He said that they were throwing away the lost items and he had to check them all. He noticed the British passport in the bag and thought to himself "This British guy must be looking for his passport". He then checked my details and found out who I was. He also said that the money was still there and nothing was missing. I was the luckiest guy in the world. I had £20,000 back. I couldn't believe it.<br><br>I walked out of the station £20,000 richer than when I walked in. I couldn't believe it. I had forgotten about that money for the past 8 years. I had written it off. I had no idea where the bag was. I was so happy. I was also a bit annoyed that I forgot about the lottery ticket I bought. I was still the luckiest guy in the world. I had £20,000 back. I couldn't believe it.<br><br>I couldn't believe it. I also couldn't believe that I was moving £200,000 with a 14 month old baby. I am 100% sure that we the best looking baby on that train. I felt bad as the baby was carrying £180,000 on her. I was happy with my small portion of the suitcase but £20,000 is still a lot of money to someone.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Edit: Thanks for all replies, kind words and awards. I genuinely appreciate all your comments.<br><br>Edit 2: Apologies French as I haven’t replied to your comments. I appreciate everything you have said.