Random Act of Kindness: Anonymous Benefactor?

For the third day this week, we've had a very mysterious thing happen in our street:  someone has been putting a 10 euro bill in our mailboxes.

It started on Tuesday.  My neighbor came to ask me if we had checked our mail yet.  I hadn't and asked her why, and she said she had found a 10 euro bill in hers.  So I checked our mail and lo and behold, there was a 10 euro bill lying on top of the mail!  We were flabbergasted.  My neighbor started asking other people and by the end of the day, we knew of at least 6 other families who had received the money.

Then on Wednesday, it happened again.  There was another 10 euro bill put into the mailboxes along with the free advertising sheets we get on Wednesdays.  A bunch of us stood outside trying to figure out if the whole street had received money, and as it turned out, the only people who hadn't received anything were the people who had a sticker on their mailbox requesting no free advertising be placed in their box.

Yesterday, the press got wind of the whole thing, and they descended on our street.  My neighbor was interveiwed on the radio, the television, and there was a full page article in one of the national newspapers with a picture of a few of our neighbors (luckily I wasn't home when the reporters came - LOL!).  It was kind of crazy.  They even asked me if they could film our mailbox - the reporters wanted to do a reenactment of someone putting the money in - so I said sure.  So in the news report below, at the beginning, it's my mailbox they're filming and my neighbor Kristel who's being interviewed:

There's been a lot of speculation about who might be doing this - someone who recently won 5 million in the Lotto in our neighborhood? Is it because the name of our street means "savings street?" One news outlet is reporting this morning that it's an advertising stunt. Who could it be? It's been so interesting to see how people react to such a strange thing - a lot of people were very suspicious at first and wondered if it was real money. It did feel a bit creepy, but at the same time, I think it's best to give it a positive spin. Last year someone who inherited money from his mother did the same kind of thing in Koksijde, on the Belgian coast - three days in a row, he put 20 euro bills in all the mailboxes of two apartment buildings. Perhpas the person in our street was inspired by him? I have no idea but when I came home from the gym today there was another 10 euro bill in my mailbox. After thinking about it, I decided the best thing to do will be to donate the money to the Cancer League, since we've had so many friends and family affected by cancer over the years. In that way, the good karma will hopefully continue to spread! UPDATE: Well, as it turned out, it was indeed a publicity stunt...they did the same thing in Rue de l'Epargne (savings street) in Liege (French speaking part of Belgium). In the meantime I donated my 30 euros to an event taking place in Leuven today: Levensloop. This is a relay team running event to raise money for cancer and my son has friends who are running it, so I decided this was the perfect cause to support!