Hitting The Right Note

‘IT would be the ultimate Christmas present – a fiendishly difficult jigsaw puzzle that leaves anyone who completes it £1,200 richer.

‘Let’s see them try to stick pieces of ash together’

A year ago, 12-year-olds Rachel Aumann and Maisie Balley found just such a jigsaw in a bin as they walked to school in Brighton – a bag of shredded bank notes.

Being fine, upstanding citizens, the two handed the loot into police who, when it had not been claimed after six months, returned it to the girls.

So, says the Telegraph, for 30 minutes a night for the past year Rachel and Maisie and Rachel’s step-father Peter have laboriously been trying to match the pieces and stick the notes back together.

So far, they have made £1,200 and are hoping to top £2,000 when they have got through the whole bag – money which Rachel intends to save until she goes to university and Maisie means to blow on a shopping trip in London.

As for where the money comes from, Maisie thinks it may have been shredded by an old lady who didn’t want to leave it to anyone when she died, while Rachel thinks it could have been a divorce, where one party didn’t want the other to have it.

Alternatively, it could be a brilliant marketing ploy for the new Anorak Rags To Riches Jigsaw (available at all good stockists, price £2,009.99). Or, given the amount, it could be that Jeffrey Archer’s been up to his old tricks again…’

Posted: 20th, November 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink