Gold bar lake: Teen gets to keep gold bar worth $20,000

A teenager in Germany can keep a 500-gram (17.6-ounce) bar of gold that she found in an Alpine lake last year and handed in to police.

Police in Berchtesgaden on Thursday confirmed a report in Munich daily tz that authorities had been unable to find an owner for the bar, news agency dpa said. That means that, six months after the find, the 16-year-old girl who found it gets to keep it. The bar is worth about $20,000.

The girl, who hasn’t been identified, was on vacation at the Koenigssee lake in Germany’s southeastern corner at the time of the find in August. She found it around 2 metres (6 1/2 feet) under the surface.

It’s still not clear how the bar ended up in the lake.