Pocono News Section

Free Money on the Streets of Scranton

Free Money on the Streets of Scranton - Monday, August 24, 2009 at 6:57PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Monday, Aug 24, 2009 @ 06:57pm EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - Money may not grow on trees, but it was left on the streets of Scranton Monday afternoon for anyone to take.

Quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies were laying all about just after 2:00 PM. Hundreds of coins available for the taking on the street.

"Someone reports bags of coins on the street here, at the corner of Franklin and Spruce, so our security staff came out," Joe Gibbons from PNC Bank said.

Gibbons and his crew helped clean up the cash for the cops.

"It's not our money from PNC. It looks like it's marked with Old Forge Bank tags," Gibbons said.

Slowly but surely, all of the money was collected. None was swiped by greedy pedestrians. The sight did get some curious onlookers. They didn't know what was going on though.

When asked if she knew it was money on the ground, Erin Gibbons replied "No. I had no idea." When asked what she would have done if she found the cash, she said, "I don't know if I can say what I would have done on TV."

In all, there may have been up to $800 in coins that spilled out onto the streets. That's because each of the two money bags was marked with $440 labels.

Police are now investigating why the money bags were on the street in the first place and where they really came from.

"It's about as unusual as you can get," Joe Gibbons said.