The man who found the coins in the backpack of a woman who vanished in Australia last year is asking for a reward of up to $2.600.
The Perth man, who asked to remain anonymous, said he found the $10,000 coin in a backpack of the backpacker’s daughter when he went to retrieve the backpack in the early hours of January 21.
“I just went straight to the police station and handed them the backpack and said ‘you’ll find these coins’ and the lady went to get the coin and she was gone,” he said.
“When she came back I went back to the house and I had the bag and I took it to the station, and they had a couple of police officers there and they went through the bag.”
He said he returned to the woman’s house with the bag to get her money.
Police said it was not known whether she had been kidnapped or if she had gone missing herself.
But they said they had no information to suggest she had committed any crime and had contacted the man who returned the bag.
A spokeswoman for Perth Police said the woman in question had not been identified and police had no reason to believe she was abducted.
Ms Johnston said she had never heard of a backpacker taking the money to Australia and was surprised it had been found in a woman’s backpack.
She said she would like to see police work with her in finding the person who took the money and for the person to be identified.
In a statement to the ABC, Ms Johnston said the backpack was not hers and it had not belonged to her.
“It was stolen from a friend who went out to dinner one night,” she said.
“(I) just want the person that stole it to be caught and I don’t want to think about the girl’s wellbeing.”
Topics:missing-person,police,victoria-4350,perth-6000,arbor-7000,burswood-7250,worthington-7350Contact Nick DeaneMore stories from Western Australia