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Wife cashes in on 'secret' cache

Hong Kong's financial woes led to a little domestic strife for one man yesterday when his wife discovered he had a secret stash of $70,000 deposited with the troubled International Bank of Asia.

Hearing of the rush by depositors to withdraw their money, 60-year-old Mrs Tse casually asked her husband if they had money there. She was stunned when the father of her 12 children replied with a sheepish 'yes'.

But they didn't argue. Instead they went to bed so that Mr Tse could be ready bright and early to withdraw the money.

'I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking of the $70,000 he'd put in the bank without telling me,' she said.

Just before 4 am, five hours before the bank's Tsuen Wan branch opened, she packed him off.

'He queued up in front of the bank first. I went later to give him an umbrella to protect him from the sun,' said Mrs Tse, who also took a turn in the queue while her husband bought breakfast.

But Mr Tse, who came with his wife from Fujian province a decade ago, was unrepentant.

The deposit was no secret, he insisted, just part of his wholesale fashion business.

'She is busy cooking and taking care of the grandchildren. I didn't want to bother her by telling her about the money,' he said.

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