A white-haired old man was caught by customs officials as he attempted laundering outrageously huge amount of U.S. dollars from China’s borderline city, Shenzhen to Hong Kong.
The hefty-looking man unknowingly tipped off the police because there’s hardly an easy way to strap $74,000 around the waist without drawing attention.
Reports say the hard cash made him look suspiciously-chubby but he tried covering it up with a jacket even though the weather was very hot. He looked strange adding a jacket to his outfit on a scorching summer afternoon, across a national border.
After the old man was stopped for questioning, reports say he started panicking and acting strange.
A scanner used to inspect the man sounded an alarm especially when pressed around his pot-belly.
Knowing he had been busted for attempting money laundering, the suspect confessed his crime, that he’s in fact, illegally carrying raw cash over to the other side, NetEase reports.
Around his waist, the man had wrapped a custom-made grey scarf with six pockets. Inside each pocket was a fat stack of cash. In total, officers found that he had $74,000 strapped around his waist.
The maximum amount allowed out of China is $5,000.
For more than that, you need a bank certificate issued by the customs authority. Obviously, this guy didn’t have that. It’s not known what exactly he planned to do with all that American cash in Hong Kong.
And while $74,000 in cash may seem like an impressive amount to keep on your body, officials have seen way more than that. Just last year a Hong Kong woman was caught crossing the border into the mainland with $200,000 strapped to her body.
The year before that, a Hong Kong man was discovered to have an incredible $580,000 strapped around his legs.
Indeed, it looks like smugglers should consider underground tunnels than risking jail time strapping cash on the body.
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