A bank safe swept miles downriver by this week’s catastrophic Nepal-Tibet flash flood was later found, broken open, and looted by local residents before police tracked down 29 people and recovered most of the missing cash.
How the Safe Ended Up There
The safe was carried away from the Bhotekoshi area of Rasuwa district during the flooding and turned up days later on the banks of the Trishuli River near Belbubola, in Ward 4 of Galchi Rural Municipality, dozens of miles from where it started.
What Happened Next
According to police, local residents pried the safe open and removed the cash inside on their own rather than reporting it to authorities. Nepal Police launched a search that led to 29 arrests, with those detained ranging in age from 19 to 49, and recovered roughly 9.27 million Nepalese rupees, about $57,000, from the group.
A Small Story Inside a Much Bigger Disaster
The safe theft is a minor footnote next to the scale of the broader catastrophe: the same flooding has killed hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet and left nearly 3,000 people missing, with search and rescue operations still underway across the affected river valleys.
