Honest shopper returns £2,000 to Tesco after bag mix-up

One Tesco shopper got more than he bargained for when he accidentally picked up a carrier bag containing £2,000 in cash.

After paying for his shopping at a self-service till in a Bournemouth branch of Tesco, 33-year-old Down realised he had left a bag behind but when he went back to pick up his shopping he mistakenly took the cash from the checkout's till.

The shopper didn't realise his mistake until he got home and found £2,197.70 in the bag, along with a receipt.

Honest Down returned to the store to explain to the manager what had happened but he was unaware of the incident. It was not until the CCTV footage was checked a cashier was seen cashing-up the day before and then leaving the money on the till overnight.

Down, who lives in Essex, receive a call from the store thanking him for returning the money. The father-of-one told the Mirror: "I was so surprised when I got back to where I'm staying for work and just saw this huge wad of money. I didn't really know what to do and at the time I thought I may have just taken a customer's bag of cash.

"Then I found the till clearance receipt and knew it belonged to Tesco."

Down said when he went back and asked the security guard if the store was missing some money "he looked at me like I was mad" and the duty manager had no idea either.

The store offered Down £25 to £30 worth of food as a thank you but he declined.

"I said I'd just be doing it for the sake of it and I wasn't handing it back in to get something back," said Down. "A lot of people have said to me that 90% of people would have kept that money and I'm surprised it lasted that long on the till without someone else nicking it."

Down later found out the 'pods' that cashiers place money into after cashing up were not in service and subsequently the cash had been left at the till.

A spokesperson for Tesco said senior management had been aware of the missing money and thanked Down for returning the money. He received a £50 voucher at the store and was sent a further £25 voucher as a thank you.

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