Italian man emptied his trash like any other day — but CCTV caught one detail that sent cops racing to a junkyard for an hours-long search
Sometimes we toss things without looking. By the time we realize what’s gone, it may be too late to get it back. An Italian man mistook a box for his usual household garbage; he later realized it contained valuables worth 120,000 euros (approximately $142,146) and immediately reported it to the police. While the search was assumed to be theft at first, one single detail from the CCTV footage led the Carabinieri, Italy's national police force, to race toward the junkyard to recover the box after a long search. As reported by Italien News on Thursday, February 12, 2026, the mystery box was obtained from the waste disposal facility.
In Porto Cesareo, an Italian man noticed that a box containing 20 bars of gold, which were worth more than 120,000 euros, was missing. He immediately rushed to the Carabinieri to retrieve the valuables. The perplexed officers began investigating by retracing the man's steps and analyzing the CCTV footage from several surveillance cameras in the area. Initially, they suspected that the man's valuables may have been robbed and considered the possibility of theft, which may have led to the box going missing. But the CCTV footage revealed a small detail that led them to solve the mystery. The man had mistakenly carried the box containing the gold to a garbage bin, which later ended up in a public waste garbage can in the Torre Lapillo district.
The Carabinieri realized that the can had been emptied by the local waste collection service, which had been disposed of for further processing. With less time left, the team hurried to the large waste disposal facility, where the region's garbage was usually dumped. Joining the staff from the facility, the officers began digging through the waste at the massive disposal site. While the task was extremely tedious and required several hours of sifting through the trash, the staff and the Carabinieri were able to track the missing box. Even though the box was severely damaged from the mechanical stress of transport and the rough handling at the landfill site, everything inside remained completely untouched and perfectly preserved.
Before returning the gold bars, authorities carefully inspected them to confirm their legality and ownership. However, the process did not take long. Once everything was verified, the man was reunited with his valuables. Recovering the valuables would not have been possible without the quick response and tireless efforts of the police and facility staff, who spent hours meticulously sifting through the massive piles of garbage to locate the missing box. Authorities deserve praise for using both technology and hands-on methods to locate the lost valuables. Their quick action prevented what could have been a devastating financial loss.