A 28-year-old woman recently ended up in the emergency room at University Hospital of Santander (HUS) in Bucaramanga, Colombia, after swallowing over $9,000 in $100 bills to make sure that her ex didn't get half of it.
The bizarre incident took place on April 22, when Sandra Milena Almeida showed up at the hospital complaining of severe stomach pain. Doctors quickly realized that the 28-year-old woman had a gastric obstruction so she was rushed into the operating room for emergency surgery.
When they opened her up, doctors were shocked to find that Almeida's stomach was full of rolled up $100 bills. They managed to extract most of the money from the small intestine, with the rest making its way through the colon to be evacuated naturally.
It's not every day that you find $5,700 in cash in a patient's stomach, so the University Hospital of Santander notified local police of their unusual discovery. They questioned the woman about her motives as soon as she recovered from the surgery, and learned that they weren't dealing with a criminal action, but with "an act of desperation."
Sandra Milena Almeida revealed that she and her partner had been saving money to move to Panama and make a better life for themselves, but their relationship had hit rock bottom and the man wanted to break up with her. He also wanted half the money they had saved from selling furniture, a motorcycle and various other items, but Almeida wouldn't hear of it.
To avoid giving her ex half the money she decided to eat it all instead. She rolled up the $100 bills, wrapped them in plastic foil and secured the wrapping with rubber bands before swallowing them all and washing them down with water. Soon after she ingested the $9,000, Sandra started to feel severe stomach pain and had to go to the hospital.
Bucaramanga police investigated Almeida's claims and soon announced that the story checks out, and they don't plan on filing any charges against her. She was released from the hospital on Friday and received the $5,700 retrieved from her stomach.
Contacted by Colombian news outlets, the woman refused to comment on what had happened, saying that she wanted to put it all behind her. She'll probably still have to give her ex partner half of their savings, only now she'll be left with even less.
