It was a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes that the British police never managed to solve. Since 2014 cash packages have been sporadically appearing in Blackhall Colliery, a small town on the northeast coast of England, without anyone knowing who left them and why.
The packages contained 20 pounds sterling ($ 26) and some up to 2,000 pounds ($ 2,599) . In total, about 26,000 pounds (33,797) scattered in the town of less than 5,000 inhabitants were counted.
Blackhall Colliery became the focus of worldwide attention when authorities revealed the mysterious appearances of money. They conducted numerous interviews, interrogated the local bank and post office staff and investigated the money for fingerprints, but failed to resolve it.
Actually, it was the "perpetrators" themselves who clarified the mystery. Around Christmas, after the noise caused by the police investigation, two people appeared before a senior police officer to take responsibility for the money packages, The Guardian newspaper revealed. It was shown that they were the true benefactors in answering a series of questions whose answers only they would have known.
Both benefactors had recently received "unexpected gains" and one of them told the officer that he had felt an "emotional connection with the people" after being helped by one of his residents and wanted to return the gesture of kindness.
A jealously guarded secret
Durham police said the couple's identity would remain a well-kept secret, because they did not wish to receive public praise for their generosity.
"Something must have happened over time that brought them back to Blackhall and gave them such an emotional feeling towards the people there," said John Forster, the detective in charge of the investigation. He added that they were not local residents, married or related. They may even have left the cash separately before joining forces later.
The couple's names are so well guarded that even Forster said he didn't know, nor wanted to know, who they were.
Police praised the honesty of 13 people who had found 2,000-pound packages and handed them over to the police. The money was returned when no one showed up to claim it.
It was also known that benefactors had left more money in places where it could be found by people in need, such as retirees. Sometimes they made sure someone picked it up before leaving the place.
It is not known if they will continue to leave packages in the future, but in that case, those who find them do not have to report them to the police.
"I am very happy that we have an answer to this mystery and I am glad that we can now definitively rule out that the money is linked to any crime or vulnerable person," said Foster and said that in the middle of a job that aims to deal with the worst social scourges, the whole mystery was "very funny".
Edited by Ivette Leyva.
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