A worker at a waste disposal site has found 10,000 yen cash in a stream of pulverised rubbish, police say.

“There were about a thousand (10,000) yen (N 18, 080, 000) bills that came out of a pulveriser unscathed,” a spokesman at the Asaminami police department in Hiroshima prefecture, in Japan’s west, said today.

He added that there were also 2300 fragments of bills destroyed by the machine at a municipal facility that processes large waste, such as cupboards and mattresses, that cannot be collected by regular garbage pick-up.

Police suspect the owner of the cash might have forgotten the money was there when he or she threw away some furniture.

“We believe it is unlikely there is anything criminal in this, although we must say we don’t know much about this money at all,” the spokesman said.

The cash was found on Monday. If no one comes forward within three months, the waste disposal facility will have the right to claim the money, the spokesman said.