'It was raining money': Residents of Belgian town scoop up thousands of euros after crooks hurl safe from getaway car (and ignore police pleas to return cash)

Passers-by swiped €50, €100 and €200 notes which littered the roadside

Police warn anyone caught with the cash they face up to two years in jail

The robbers made a clean getaway



Residents of a small town in Belgium have been urged to return tens of thousands of euros flung from a speeding car by robbers fleeing police.

One man in the Flemish town of Zedelgem said it as if it was 'raining money' when the crooks hurled a stolen safe from their vehicle to distract officers giving chase.

It smashed open and littered the roadside with €50, €100 and €200 notes, which were quickly collected passers-by.

'It was big money. Everyone was over the moon': Residents of a small town in Belgium have been urged to return tens of thousands of euros which spilled from a safe flung from a speeding car by robbers fleeing police

One man said he swept up two rolls of €5,000, only to have a police officer snatch them off him.

The ruse worked, however, and the robbers escaped, albeit empty-handed.

But the Belgian authorities are poised to make arrests after warning those who took the cash they face up to two years in jail.

Nevertheless, they have only recovered around €11,000 - believed to be a fraction of the loot.

Jose Maertens, owner of a beauty salon on Ruddervoordsestraat, the street where the thieves ditched the safe, said: 'It was as if it had been raining money.



'I just could not believe it, the street was really full. It was big money. Everyone was over the moon.'

'The police just grabbed the money out of my hands.I could have kicked myself. How could I be so stupid to not immediately go inside?' Jose Maertens, owner of a beauty salon near where the safe was ditched

He told Het Nieuwsblad he'd tried to make off with €10,000, but was caught by police who broke off their chase to stop people picking up the cash.

'I had two rolls with a hundred banknotes of €50 and also some loose notes of 100 and 200 euros,' he said. 'The police just grabbed the money out of my hands.

'I could have kicked myself. How could I be so stupid to not immediately go inside? You really only get such a chance once in your life.'

He said there were around 30 people in the area when the safe burst open at around nine o'clock on Saturday night, who all went off with their hands full.



A van driver passing through the area reportedly managed to stow thousands in his vehicle.

'The street was really full': Ruddervoordsestraat in Zedelgem, near where the robbers ditched the safe. Around 30 people in the area all went off with their hands full of cash, one witness said

The safe had been earlier stolen from a house in Torhout, about five miles away.

The owner, who preferred to remain anonymous, admitted it wasn't wise to keep so much cash around but said he had no confidence in the banks.

He has not revealed how much was in the safe.



Two people have since come forward to return money. The safe's owner added: 'We want to thank those who went to the police. But those who stole our money should be ashamed.