Coin thief picks on wrong bank teller

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Talk about karmic payback.

Two days after stealing a rare coin collection an alleged thief in Germany took his loot to a bank for safe-keeping and ended up handing the coins to the very man he'd stolen them from, police said Wednesday.

The stunned bank teller, an avid coin collector, recognized the coins as being the same set that had been stolen from his house and called police, said Saskia Schneider, a police spokesman for the western German city of Dortmund.

"That's a case you don't hear every day," she said.

Police said the 36-year-old man recently broke into the home of the coin collector in Dortmund and made off with coins worth $80,000.

"He had two days to be happy about it," she said, before he decided to deposit the coins for safe-keeping.

His caution, Schneider said, led to his capture. Police have charged him with burglary.

Later, police said they found jewellery and other stolen goods in the home of the unemployed man. E-mail to a friend