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Red Cross receives gold bars left on Swiss train

A mysterious stash of 120 gold bars found on a Swiss train nearly four years ago has been given to the Red Cross, prosecutors said Friday, after failing to trace the owner.

Published: 25 August 2023 17:09 CEST
A train in Switzerland.
A train in Switzerland. Gold bars were left on a train, addressed to the Red Cross. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

In October 2019, a train attendant found a package on a train travelling from St Gallen to Lucerne, the Lucerne regional public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Among the labelling on the package were the words “ICRC valuables”, in an apparent reference to the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross.

“The package contained 120 gold bars (total gold weight: 3.732 kilogrammes), which were labelled with a logo and serial numbers,” the statement said.

It did not say how much the stash was worth, but gold bars are currently being sold for close to $60,000 per kilo.

“Despite extensive investigations, the owner of the gold bars could not be determined,” the statement said.

“Thus, neither the owner of the gold nor a connection with a possible property crime could be determined,” with prosecutors closing the case.

“Since the gold was in a package addressed to the ICRC, it can be assumed that the unknown owner wanted to hand over the gold to this organisation.

Thus, the find is handed over to the ICRC.”

The ICRC did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

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OFFBEAT

MP up in arms over Swiss military’s choice of wine

Switzerland’s military is facing financial woes— its coffers are short of 1 billion francs to fund new arms purchases. But according to one MP, the army has a more pressing problem right now.

Published: 17 April 2024 15:44 CEST
MP up in arms over Swiss military’s choice of wine

On March 30th, a disturbing scene happened at the military base in Thun, in canton Bern.

At a ceremony to which soldiers’ families were invited, Italian wine was served to the guests.

This faux-pas may have remained under wraps and kept as a military secret if it weren’t for the vigilance of one member of the parliament.

But this incident was not lost on MP Yvan Pahud, who, as a member of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, is principally highly critical of any kind of international influence in Switzerland’s internal affairs — be it the country’s ties with the European Union or, in this particular case, foreign wine.

Therefore, as the National Council’s deputies debated various matters of national importance during a special session on April 15th, Pahud brought up the issue of foreign alcoholic beverages served by the army.

He argued that parents and guests who attended the event “were outraged that our Swiss army was promoting foreign wine, when  our country has its own winegrowers.”

The MPs remained neutral on this issue, and the Defence Department has yet to address this hot-button topic.

It is not known if at least some concessions to ‘Swissness’ were made at the event — that is, whether the bottles of Italian wine were uncorked with Swiss army knives.

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