BERLIN: Police said a dozen gold bars worth some 117,000 euros ($124,000; Dh455,439) were stolen from a woman’s car while she left the vehicle briefly unattended in a small Austrian town.

The 12 bars were hidden in an insulated bag behind the driver’s seat of the vehicle, which was parked Wednesday afternoon in the main square of Bad Radkersburg, on the border with Slovenia.

The Austria Press Agency quoted police saying Thursday that the owner intended to use the bars in a real estate deal. They weighed about 3 kilogrammes in total.

The 52-year-old woman discovered the theft only 10 minutes after she had left the car. The thief or thieves didn’t take the insulated bag.