Cheques to the value of nearly £100,000 were dumped on a street in an amazing bank blunder.
The bag of cheques had been paid into the branch of the Abbey and should have been taken to the bank's London clearing centre.
But instead they'd been left lying by a lamp post just yards from the branch in Whitley Bay in North Tynside, with customer account numbers and sort codes on show.
Teenager Danny Kendall, of Grosvenor Drive, Whitley Bay, spotted the package just after 9.30pm as he cycled over to see his friend Daren Jones in West Monkseaton.
Danny, 16, and Daren, 17, went back to look at the bag and discovered it contained 142 customer cheques and a slip detailing the £97, 507.10 worth of contents.
Customers' account numbers, sort codes , signatures and other security details were all on display.
If the cheques had not arrived at the clearing centre the money may not have been paid into customer accounts.
Danny, a performing arts student at Tyneside Metropolitan College, said: "I was amazed. It would have been like winning the lottery for a thief.
"When I first cycled past I didn't think much of it, but Daren and I thought we'd go back and have a closer look because we thought it probably shouldn't be there.
"We didn't see the address on the front but when we opened it up we found all the cheques and the note saying how much they were worth."
Daren, who is studying chemistry and biology A-level said: "We went back to my house with the package and told my parents, but at first they didn't believe us.
"But when we showed them the package and the cheques they told us that we would have to return them, and they were shocked that anything like this could have happened.
"It doesn't give you any confidence in the bank that's for sure. I mean, I know lots of people who would have just picked up the package we found and burnt it or something like that."
Danny, who has a brother Chris, 19, and himself banks with Abbey, said: "I'm going to think carefully about paying in cheques in the future.
"If someone had wanted they could have had the account details of all of the people the cheques belong to."
The boys took the bag of cheques back to the bank the following day, much to the shock and delight of the staff at the Abbey in Whitley Bay.
Daren said: "When we took in the package, the look on their faces was really funny. I said to the woman behind the counter, 'We've found something you've lost' and suddenly everyone in the bank was paying us attention.
"They thanked us both very much and said that they'd had head office on the phone already that morning asking where this package was, and they had no idea. The last thing they knew was when the courier came to pick it up. They took both of our details so I hope that we get a reward from them."
Sharon Makin, public relations officer for Abbey, said: "We can confirm a batch of cheques collected from Whitley Bay branch by the courier company responsible for collection, DHL, were returned to the branch.
"At this stage it's unclear why the cheques were misplaced and DHL is currently investigating this.
"There will be a reward for the two boys as a gesture of our appreciation.
As of yet I don't know how much it will be but we'll be contacting them today to express our personal thanks.
"We will be sending them a note and within that there will be an enclosure.
"We would like to stress that no customers will have been financially disadvantaged."
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