Dubai Resident Accidentally Throws Away Gold Worth Dh50,000 How Police Helped Get It Back

2026-02-05 02:27:44

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

What followed was a series of 'miracles', said the family, who assumed they would never see their valuables again

PUBLISHED: Thu 5 Feb 2026, 7:40 PM

By:
Meher Dhanjal

They say one man's trash is another man's treasure, but what happens when your treasure literally ends up in the trash? For one Dubai family, what started out as a nightmare soon became a testament to the wonderful ways in which the city helps people believe in the impossible.

Former Dubai resident Kamini Kannan, who lived in the UAE for 23 years before moving to India in 2021, was recently in town for a wedding. As gold prices underwent a volatile week in late January - with 22K gold prices rocketing above Dh600 per gram and climbing steadily - she decided to reevaluate how much she had invested in the yellow metal over the decades.

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Noticing that the worn-out pouch she used to store the gold was tearing apart at the seams, she temporarily moved the items - four 22K gold coins, 8g each, and one 50g 24K gold bar - into another pouch and left it at the dining table. Unfortunately, that pouch was unwittingly thrown away while tidying up later that day.

What followed was a series of "miracles", said the family, who assumed they would never see their valuables again.

It was only the following morning, on February 1 - one day before she was due to fly out - that the Indian resident noticed the missing pouch and went into a frenzied hunt for the valuables. Realising that her son had accidentally thrown it away, she informed the security guard of the situation - and gave up all hope. "Those items are worth about Dh50,000 today," Kamini told Khaleej Times over the phone.

Despite the substantial loss, they did not file a police report. "If it's in the trash, that means it's gone," she said, recalling her state of despair at the time.

Yet, in just three days, on February 4, her son received an unexpected phone call from the building guard. "He said that there was someone asking about the things we lost. Turns out, it was the police," Abhimanyu recounted to Khaleej Times.

How the police found the gold

On receiving the call, the Indian expat rushed over to the building's reception to meet the policeman. That's when he heard how a garbage collector had found the gold and taken it to the gold souk. The police intervened there, asking the worker where he found the valuables. "He told them that he found it in the garbage," Abhimanyu said, recalling what the officer told him.

"It seems they have a whole system to track the garbage. They know what bag comes from where," he said, in awe.

"They called me to Naif Police Station at 4pm the same day. All I had to do was take photos of the gold, bills and proof to show that it was my mum's." Although the process took a few hours, the resident said that it was seamless and that the police officers were "incredibly kind".

Dubai has a consistent track record for its diligence towards helping residents and tourists alike retrieve lost belongings. Last year, police found and returned a bag filled with Dh102,000 in cash at DXB's Terminal 1 in just 30 minutes.

From taxi drivers handing back bags of money to airport staff tracking down misplaced belongings and professional divers retrieving valuables lost at sea, such stories have become part of the emirate's everyday narrative. "I truly love how wonderful Dubai is," Kamini said. "There's no other city like it."