She was anxiously waiting for the fate of the 5 million yen in the old speaker box

At noon in mid-March, it was a hot day in Saigon. Ms. Huynh Thi Anh Hong (36 years old), who bought an old speaker box, discovered more than 5 million yen (more than one billion VND) inside a year ago.

In a house with one ground floor and a wooden attic filled with scrap goods, Ms. Hong and nearly a dozen women who work as waste buyers talked and laughed.

Ms. Hong said she was anxiously waiting for the day when there would be a decision on the amount of 5 million yen.

One year ago, on the afternoon of March 21, 2014, she and her husband took the rusty old square metal speaker box, about 0.5m high, that they bought a few months earlier, to the alley to remove the screws and sort them to get iron.

Rumors about the couple buying scraps and `winning treasure` spread very quickly.

The police were mobilized to disperse the crowd gathered in the alley.

From the day Ms. Hong announced that the couple had found 5 million yen, all relatives and friends asked and congratulated them.

`My life hasn’t changed much in the past year. Maybe it’s because I’m famous, everywhere I go, people recognize me and ask about the money in the speaker box. At that time, I felt lightheaded again.

She said it would be disappointing if `in the 90th minute` someone came to prove that she was the owner of the money.

Every day, Ms. Hong still pushes the cart to buy scraps and bottles.

After more than an hour of eating and taking a lunch break, Ms. Hong and everyone else put on conical hats and pushed their tricycle out onto the street to make a living.

Talking to VnExpress on March 12, Colonel Le Hoang Chau – Head of Tan Binh District Police – said that more than 5 million yen that Ms. Hong and her husband handed over has been deposited in the state treasury.

Regarding the handling of this money, lawmakers believe that it should be based on Clause 2, Article 239 of the Civil Code: Establishing ownership of ownerless objects and objects whose owners cannot be identified.

Article 239 of the Civil Code: Establishing ownership of ownerless objects and objects whose owners cannot be determined

1. An ownerless object is an object for which the owner has given up ownership rights.

A person who discovers an ownerless object that is movable property has the right to own that property according to the provisions of law;

2. The person who discovers an object whose owner cannot be identified must notify or hand it over to the People’s Committee of the commune, ward, town or the nearest police station to publicly notify the owner to reclaim it.

The surrender must be recorded in writing, clearly stating the full name, address of the surrenderer, recipient, condition, quantity, and volume of the surrendered property.

The People’s Committee or local police who received the object must notify the discoverer of the results of identifying the owner.

In cases where the owner of an object whose owner cannot be determined is movable property, then after one year from the date of public announcement, if the owner still cannot be determined, then that movable property belongs to the creator.