Austrian granny shreds a million euros

After the woman died in a retirement home in Lower Austria, the €950,000 in cash as well as savings accounts books were found shredded on her bed, prosecutors said.

State prosecutor Erich Habitzl confirmed the discovery — first reported in the Kurier newspaper — but said that there was nothing he could do for the relatives.

“The damage of the money in the woman's property is not a criminal matter, so we have not begun any investigation,” Habitzl told AFP.

Kurier reported however that the woman's surviving family will have the last laugh, with Austria's central bank (OeNB) saying it will replace all the cash.

“If the heirs can only find shreds of money and if the origin of the money is assured, then of course it can all be replaced,” Friedrich Hammerschmidt, deputy head of the OeNB cashier division, told Kurier.

“If we didn't pay out the money then we would be punishing the wrong people.”