Homeless Man Found $354,000 at Paris Airport

A homeless man stumbled onto 300,000 Euros worth $354,786 at current exchange rates in the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport last Friday.

Based on security footage police recognized the man as someone who usually sleeps around the airport. He ‘leaned on a door’ in terminal 2F which generally serves Air France’s partners like KLM and Alitalia. It was left unlocked and it opened. And it was the Loomis cash management company’s door. Loomis collects money from shops in the terminal and supplies its ATMs.


Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2A

The homeless man “walked back out with two bags of cash.”

Officers who checked the security footage found that the man had been searching bins outside the office and looked surprised when the door he leaned on opened. He went inside and re-emerged seconds later carrying the two bags.

The man left a suitcase behind, but nothing in it has given his identity away.


Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2A

When the door opened an alarm was triggered but the man was already gone when the facility’s manager and border police officers arrived.

(HT: Khalil D.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Yea, I just “found” this diamond necklace…

    Title should have been: “Homeless Man Stole $354,000 at Paris Airport”

    Indeed, Run dude, run!

    But don’t use Charles de Gaule for your escape.

  2. Homeless people have been living in Charles De Gaul Airport in Paris for YEARS. They are especially in the old terminal 1. Another reason to blow up terminal 1. No wait don’t do it!!! Terminal 1 has the Star Alliance lounge which is a good lounge especially since can use it when arriving with Priority Pass and has nice showers.

  3. @Joe

    He was probably landside. He will not be able to go airside.

    The fault here is certainly on the Loomis side.
    How can the cash have been left in a non secure way, with no people around and doors not closed?

    Yes Run dude, run.

    The fact is also that you cannot in France pays in cash anything more than 1000 euros.
    He will have to leave the Paris region.
    I fear the police will find him one day or another.

    Nice story in december.

  4. Only in the oh-so-ethical world of “travel bloggers” would this act be called anything other than “theft.” The headline speaks volumes about the integrity of its “thought leader” writer.

  5. Where’s a homeless guy with hardly any ID going to go with so much money? He’ll spend a bit and come back. The cops will look after him better than anyone or even the money.

  6. I support Gary on original headline, only adding “and took it” is sufficient.

    Keep the good stories coming.

  7. the original article says found, chanced upon…it says nothing about the ethics of the blogger. There are so many haters on this blog

  8. Bravo! Here’s hoping the man will be homeless no longer. And, to whomever left that amount of money behind an unlocked door where anyone could have walked in, my guess is you have been terminated, as your services were well below worthless.

  9. “Found” is accurate. ‘Stole’ was what the guy did after finding it. The title is neutral. Besides, we don’t visit this blog to judge right and wrong. We visit for information and entertainment.

  10. Great story! I must have missed it in 2017. Gotta admit that I’m glad for the homless guy who walked out with the loot … but no doubt he was arrested shortly thereafter when someone looked inside one of the bags and raised a fuss. OTOH, maybe he used some of it to buy some clothes, cleaned up in the airport lav, then checked into the Paris Ritz for the duration.

Comments are closed.