Children who stumbled across bundles of 100 dollar bills in a safe stolen during a burglary mistook them for Monopoly money.
The group of eight to ten-year-olds came across the black steel case stuffed with US $3,700 as they played at Hawthorns Recreation Ground in Burgess Hill.
Some of the notes were torn and burnt before one of the youngsters went home to tell her mother what they had found, clutching a handful of notes.
She alerted police who have connected the cash to an earlier burglary.
Detective Constable Ron Coxhead, of Haywards Heath CID, said police believed up to $3,000 was still missing.
He added: "It is a pretty unusual case. Some of the money was either burnt or torn because the kids genuinely thought that it was Monopoly money."
Police believe the cash came from a raid on an office at The Martlets in Burgess Hill.
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