(The New York Post) – Officials at New York’s 9/11 memorial preview site were stunned when they opened one of the donation boxes and, instead of the usual pile of change and crumpled singles, found $10,000 in crisp bills clearly left by a single person, the New York Post reported today.
“I was home watching the Yankee game when I got a call from the preview center’s manager. She asked me if I was sitting down,” said Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. He was then told that “we just found $10,000 in the donation box.”
Daniels said officials have no idea who left the pile of 99 $100 bills and five 20s — or why they did it without any recognition and even failed to ask for a receipt that could be used for a tax deduction.
The bills, which had not even been folded before they were slipped in the box, appeared to have been recently withdrawn from the bank.
The $10,000 windfall was not anywhere near a record-breaker for the memorial fund-raising effort, but the donation — cash with no one taking credit — was unprecedented.
Memorial officials believe the donation was made sometime between 5:00pm local time, when the box was last checked, and the preview site’s closure at 7:00pm. The officials looked at surveillance tapes but have no way of knowing who dropped the cash in the box.
“We’d love to know who it was so we can say thank you,” Daniels said.
