Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Paul Lauro
Topics: World News, Money, Cars
Callum Jones
A man from the Philippines has been left devastated after over $50,000 of his own money flew out of his backpack as he drove down the freeway.
While other motorists were left in complete shock and believing it was their lucky day, the man in question was understandably left gutted.
On Tuesday (4 July), John Mark Barrientos was driving down the freeway on the Cebu South Coastal Road in the Philippines when a bucket load of cash flew out of his backpack.
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While you'd think Barrientos was a little silly and left the back unzipped as he went for his morning cruise, in fact, his bag decided to break on him at the worst possible moment.
Speaking on a local radio station, Barrientos, who works for an e-wallet loading kiosk at a mall, said he only discovered that the zipper on his bag was broken when his money began flying out of it onto the freeway.
"I saw the money flying from the side mirror so I stopped to pick it up but then others were also collecting the money. Hopefully they return it," he said.
He added: "I hope they will really return it, I don’t have money to pay for it all."
A video of the incident has since gone viral on social media, showing some motorists helping Barrientos retrieve his money and returning it to him, and others sneakily taking some for themselves.
Other videos floating around on Facebook see officials counting up the money to see how much has been retrieved.
Mambaling Police Station has since said that at least three people have returned money, but around $18,000 is said to be missing.
Police staff Sergeant Jonas Recaplaza told local radio they are now in touch with Barrientos, who has been instructed to go to the police station and pick up his money.
Recaplaza also said the police are now tracking down those who got some of the cash, and those who do not willingly return it could face legal action.
Police Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, City Director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), told local media: "We will investigate so that we can identify those owners of the vehicles.
"There are faces that can be seen there, we can see them on the video that was uploaded.
"If whoever you are, if you are there on the video, then you did not volunteered to return the money that you picked up, please return it even if it is just to help the person who lost the money."