Silver urn worth Rs 5 lakh accidentally thrown in garbage found after 2 days
Civic workers in Indore recovered a silver urn worth nearly Rs 5 lakh after it was accidentally thrown away and buried under tonnes of garbage
Civic workers in Indore recovered a silver urn worth nearly Rs 5 lakh after it was accidentally thrown away and buried under tonnes of garbage, officials said on Monday. The 2-kg urn, an ancestral family heirloom used for religious rituals, was found after a two-day search at the city's waste-processing facility. The urn had been mistakenly discarded by an elderly woman from Rajendra Nagar on July 18 when a bag containing it was thrown into a municipal garbage truck. By the time the family realised it was missing, the bag had already been taken to a waste transfer station and then to the central waste processing facility at the trenching ground.
Read Full Story Chief Sanitary Inspector Vijay Yadav told PTI that the search first appeared nearly impossible because hundreds of tonnes of waste from across the city reach the processing centre every day. “It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said. Yadav said workers at the facility, where plastic, metal, wires, thermocol, footwear and other materials are separated, were alerted and asked to look for the urn. Not knowing that it was made of silver, workers had placed it in a heap of metal scrap weighing several tonnes, he said.
After the family provided a photograph of the urn, municipal employees began a systematic search. “After two days of searching, we found an urn matching the photograph, with the family's name engraved on it,” Yadav said, adding that the family was overjoyed when informed about its recovery. He said the urn might never have been found if the family had delayed reporting it, as metal scrap is compressed by machines after separation, making it almost impossible to identify individual items. The woman who accidentally threw away the urn is currently on a pilgrimage, and the recovered item has been kept with local councillor Prashant Badwe for now.
Badwe said the silver urn weighs around 2 kg and is worth nearly Rs 5 lakh at current market prices. Locals later felicitated civic workers for their honesty and effort in recovering the valuable heirloom, in a case that ended with the family getting back its long-preserved possession. Ends With PTI inputs
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