Tens of thousands collected for 'honest' Dutch homeless man

AFP AFP | 06-28 00:10

An online campaign has raised more than 34,000 euros for a homeless man in Amsterdam who turned in a wallet stuffed with 2,000 euros in cash to police.

The 33-year-old Hadjer Al-Ali said his life had been turned "completely upside down", according to the funding site, which raised 34,102 euros ($36,450) in just one day.

Hadjer, who has been sleeping on the streets for 18 months, can now finally arrange a rental home with the money, according to the site "support for the honest Hadjer".

The father-of-two has also received many messages from people offering him a job. One anonymous donor gave 750 euros and there have been 2,800 donations in total.

He found the wallet at Amsterdam central station while he was "doing his rounds" looking for empty plastic bottles to exchange for cash.

Police said he turned in the wallet with "approximately 2,000 euros... but unfortunately no identity papers or anything that would allow us to contact the owner."

"Because we think that honesty should pay, he got a 'silver thumb' prize that we sometimes give to citizens and a gift voucher worth 50 euros," authorities added.

If the money is not claimed within one year, it will go to the finder.

"I want to thank everyone so, so, so much... I can't describe how I'm feeling at the moment... I've been inundated by people saying the sweetest, nicest, things," Hadjer said in a video post on Instagram.

"I can't find the words, I don't know what to say, I'm full of adrenaline," he added, saying he could rebuild his life with the money collected.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.


ALSO READ

Saudi Arabia jails cartoonist Mohammed al-Hazza for 23 years for insulting leadership, rights group says

Dubai — A Saudi artist has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison over political cartoons...

world | 2 hours ago

Rain may have helped form the first cells, kick-starting life as we know it

Billions of years of evolution have made modern cells incredibly complex. Inside cells are small com...

science | 2 hours ago

The Science Quiz: AI in science, from neurons to nodes

Questions: 1. The functioning of organic neurons is the model for artificial neural networks. In bio...

science | 2 hours ago

Today’s top tech news: Meta’s U.S. legal troubles; Intel and AMD team up; Apple’s new iPad mini

(This article is part of Today’s Cache, The Hindu’s newsletter on emerging themes at the intersectio...

technology | 2 hours ago

AI firm Perplexity offers a peek into a new financial analysis tool

AI company Perplexity revealed a work-in-progress finance-centric platform that would let users look...

technology | 2 hours ago

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra | Prices, specs, features compared

As the festival season rolls by, many shoppers in India are considering whether it’s time to take ad...

technology | 2 hours ago