Maybe It's a New Game Show?


Okay, my friends. I want to know what you make of this one...

True story. I was returning from the drugstore, headed back to the office on Tuesday. I went to cross the street at the corner, where there is an apartment building. From the second floor apartment on the corner, from the ledge, there hung the following:

  • A long black string
  • With a clothespin at the end
  • Holding several dollar bills

This was dangling over the street, but no one would have been tall enough to reach it. In other words, you could get to it, but you'd really need a ladder, to be a professsional basketball player with excellent hangtime, or you'd have to be Spiderman.

Yesterday, it was raining, so I didn't go out to see whether it was still there. Today, it was gone entirely.

Now-- my question to you all is....

WHY?

I've been mulling on this quite a bit myself-- y'know, in between zombie-proofing the house-- and I've come up with the following possible theories:

  • It was an Idiot Enticement Snare and someone wants to hit it big with a YouTube video
  • It was the world's worst wallet
  • The renter in the corner apartment continually would leave the apartment without cash. This was supposed to be a time-saver.
  • Someone got inspired by the song "Pennies from Heaven" but took into account for inflation
  • Worried about robbers, the tenant decided to hide his cash in a place thieves would never ever look
  • It's a new hit game show called "Jumping for Dollars"?

That's all I have. I'd love to hear suggestions. I'd mentioned before that the area in which I work is a bit like stepping into a Salvador Dali painting on any given day, except with fewer floating body parts. This money on string scheme is just another example of habitual surreality.

And, if I'm right about theory number one, and it ends up being a big YouTube video? I'll be the gal with the unnaturally red hair who walks by, glances up at the camera hidden in the clothespin, and raises an eyebrow... Then moves on...

Oh yes, moves on...
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24 comments:

Chat Blanc said...

that definitely seems strange. the only other possibility I can come up with is that the tenant accidentally sent the bills thru the washer and hung them out to dry. which would be as ridiculous as it sounds! :)

Anonymous said...

Perhaps this was a true "main street bailout" offer that was ripe for the taking?

Unknown said...

Chat Blanc- Well, that sure puts a whole new spin on Money Laundering! :) It's as good a theory as any, though.

Unknown said...

Kdawg- HA! Excellent-- you're sharp today, Horseboy. Very timely. :)

Anonymous said...

I was just reading the BBC about the safest places to place cash in the UK.

And here's this guy putting his "Money on the line"

I think the hidden camera is very possible. Especially after seeing what "Just for Laughs" does to Montreallers.

Forget YouTube - you could be on Cable !

Unknown said...

Jaffer- In this area, too, it's a mix of bohemian shops, genuine professional businesses and then a LOT of restaurants and bars. So I can absolutely see drunk college kids doing whatever they can to get that money.

It probably would make a pretty hysterical Stupid People Tricks video. :)

Anonymous said...

LOL ! I can also imagine a drunk college kid going - "Hic ! That's my beer money. It's the last place Hic ! anyone would ever look ! Ha ha ha Hic ! Ha"

Unknown said...

Jaffer- It really is an equally likely possibility. And really, Sandy's "drying of the money" idea isn't bad either. I can see the aforementioned drunk college students doing that, as well.

TommyMac71 said...

Maybe his landlord lives one floor down and he was paying his rent? It was the last day of the month afterall???

Unknown said...

TommyMac- Ah, well, you know-- the timing is sure right, isn't it? :) Nice outside-the-box (or outside-the-window, rather) thinking there, Tommy!

Da Old Man said...

I just assumed, you being from North Jersey and all, the first thought would have been money laundering.
But, I suspect it is something totally different. The apartment dweller may have been expecting the replacement of a defective trampoline, and what better way to ensure the new trampoline works than to put the final payment up high?
Either that or it was a tip for a local stilt walker. I've heard folks in Western Pa. really appreciate a good stilt walker.

Unknown said...

Da Old Man- This area would actually be ripe for stilt-walkers, let me tell you.

Every day I DON'T see a stilt-walker, in fact, I'm surprised. :)

Melanie said...

I've finished zombie proofing my home, so I can spend a minute or two giving this a little thought. My first thought is that it sounds SO like something my brother and I and our crowd would have done when we were college age, just to see if anyone would make a grab for it. Of course that was years before youtube. I'd guess there is probably a camera and some college kids involved!

Unknown said...

Melanie- Congrats on the zombie-proofing. May you never surrender, and never be lunch! :) And I see we have one more vote for the college kids theory. :)

Anonymous said...

I work at a university. Every fall semester someone places a cantaloupe on the ledge of the third floor of our building and props it up with rocks. We don't know who's doing it, or why, except perhaps some kind of hazing/treasure hunt thing. This semester I threw it out because it started to get funky.

I have no idea what's happening with the money on the rope thing. What graphics program did you use to make that picture? Cuz I want it! I always love the pics you put with your posts.

Unknown said...

Kathy- Heh, love the cantaloupe thing. It's like that throwaway line in the film "Buckaroo Banzai"-- "Why is that watermelon there?" "I'll tell you later."

The graphics-- well, you're totally going to laugh... My graphics program is Microsoft Word, and I just use various shapes and shadings to make the illustrations. I capture the screens then with a Mac tool called Grab. I was going to get an actual graphics program, but I kind of have a system down now. It's stuck. :)

Babs (Beetle) said...

Hi. I just had to pop over, as we have the same friends :) I go with the TV show or the college kids.

My feed list is getting so long now ;O)

Unknown said...

Babs- Nice of you to stop by! :) It was just so funny to see so many folks we both knew listed over there on your shout-outs.

And I think you're right- college kids were undoubtedly involved.

Shieldmaiden96 said...

Maybe its a sociology class experiment. I knew someone who was instructed to 'do something non-threatening but strange in public and record reactions'. She and her mom got one small cleaning bucket and two brushes and scrubbed the Philadelphia Art Museum steps. If people asked what they were doing, they simply said "Cleaning the steps". People offered to help. People brought them sandwiches.

Unknown said...

Shieldmaiden- That's another really good possibility. College classes are fully in swing right now.

I kind of like the idea of it being homework. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm torn between Sandy's idea and the YouTube video trap.

Let us know if you find out!

Unknown said...

Jay- Unfortunately, I don't expect I'll get that kind of tidy resolution for it. But we can always hope. :) (Or make stuff up.)

Anonymous said...

Jenn, I can't believe you do all that with Word! OK, now maybe I'll be able to accomplish something similar. I was never good with graphics programs. Isn't that stupid?

I love Shieldmaiden's story. You know what I would do if I saw those people, right? Take a picture and blog about it.

Unknown said...

Kathy- I hope it'll work out for you. Keeping it simple, and using the shading options seem to make the biggest difference.

And regarding Shieldmaiden's story-- of course, we'd have to take take pictures and blog about it. That's Obsessive Compulsive Blogging Disorder in action. :)