Bank works overtime to save most of elderly couple’s US$4,750 life savings after house fire
Husband, 81, and his wife take home three-quarters of their nest egg after tellers spend eight hours counting charred remnants
An elderly couple from rural China who thought they had lost their life savings in a fire at their home managed to recoup three quarters of their nest egg after bank workers spent eight hours sorting through the charred remains.
The 81-year-old husband, identified only by his surname Huang, and his wife, feared they had lost 30,000 yuan (US$4,750) in a blaze that gutted their home in Longjie, southwest China’s Sichuan province, on January 15, Chengdu Economic Daily reported on Sunday.
“Father saved the money his whole life, and intended to use it to repair the house,” Huang’s daughter was quoted as saying.
Desperate to salvage what they could from the disaster, the family scooped up the burnt banknotes and took them to their local bank. The staff there, however, refused to help, as did workers at three other banks in the town, the report said.
It was only when the couple’s daughter struck on the idea of taking the carbonised cash to the head office of the Bank of Chengdu in the provincial capital from which it takes its name that the ageing pair saw a glimmer of hope.