Good Samaritans behind years of cash on streets

LONDON — For nearly six years, money seemed to be falling from the sky onto the streets of a village in northeastern England.

Residents of the village, Blackhall Colliery, regularly found neat bundles of 20-pound notes, then promptly handed the money to police. The bundles often amounted to 2,000 pounds, or about $2,600.

But the question of where the cash had come from left authorities baffled. The police revealed this week that two people who wished to be known only as good Samaritans had been dotting the money around town in an effort to “give something back” to the community.

At least 26,000 pounds had been found since 2014 near the main street of Blackhall Colliery, a former mining village of less than 5,000 residents on the North Sea coast.

The Durham Constabulary, the police force responsible for the surrounding county, first went public with the mystery in November in a last-ditch effort to find the source of the money. Inquiries to residents, village organizations, the post office and local bank had yielded nothing, nor had tests for fingerprints.

“These bundles are always left in plain sight such as on pavements and discovered by random members of the public who have handed them in,” John Forster, detective constable of the Durham Constabulary said in a statement released in November, after the fourth bundle that year was handed to the police. He appealed to the public to come forward with any relevant information.

The news of the cash drops spread quickly, drawing international attention and heated speculation about who, or what, might be behind them. The village residents were also praised for their honesty, as they consistently turned the cash over to the police. When no one came to claim it, the finders received the money themselves.

At least one element of the mystery came to an end on Monday, when the Durham Constabulary said that two people had come forward as the village’s philanthropists.

They both asked to remain anonymous, and police referred to them as only “the good Samaritans.”