Actually the New Zealand couple, the 'Millionaire Fugitives' I blogged about yesterday, are called Leo Gao and Cara Young. But the local media had nicknamed them Bonny And Clyde, who had suddenly disappeared without a trace after one fine day recently, when they inserted their cash card in the automatic machine, they noticed that they had a balance of 10,000,ooo New Zealand dollars.
Ten million New Zealand dollars, or some 5 million Euros. Leo and Cara who had just the day before in their account only figures in red, thought such things only happened in films. So they immediately remember Woody Allen's film 'Take the money and run'. That's exactly what they did: immediately created a new account abroad, transferred the bulk of cash into it, threw something in the suitcases and took the first plane out of the country.
They had a small petrol station in Rotorua, a touristy town of 55,000 inhabitants, in the north of the country. They lived in the outskirt with the daughter of Cara with her previous partner, and the parents and brother of Leo. Their finance was so tight that they had requested a loan from the bank, equivalent to 5,000 Euros.
The news is now in everybody's mouth in New Zealand, and by now in most parts of the world, and had, strangely, sparked off an unusual moral debate. Started with the central question: What would anybody have done? So asked newspapers, radios, and TV channels. With consternation on the part of the police, the politicians, bankers and moralists en general, a great majority says exactly the same thing, that they would do as Leo and Cara did, take the passport and credit card so as able to collect the funds and run like gazelles.
"We wish them the best of luck", "Banks are thieves and they have been served what they deserved.", and 'May you enjoy the good fortune" or phrases in the same vein have been circulating all over the net by Bloggers in many parts of the world.
The most asked question is where have they gone to? Speculation points to South Korea where Leo came from, or China where he has contacts. Their photos have been revealed by Interpol, and the New Zealand police have interrogated many of their family members and friends trying to discover likely indication of their whereabouts. The Wespac Bank, with central quarter in Australia, have not offered rewards. They said they have been left with no money!
The episode was attributed to human error: instead of depositing in their account 10,000, a tired or strayed finger had slip in extra zeros to become 10,000,000 It's more than likely they would be caught sooner and not later what with every single police is watching out for them. How much money could they recover by then is another question mark.
As the Wespac Bank's motto says: 'One must take full advantage of life to the maximum'.
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