Nearly $40,000 in cash was discovered hidden in the bathrooms of two businesses, sparking a mystery in a small Ohio town.
Five days after $25,000 was found at the Avalon Theater in Marysville on April 27, an additional $12,270 was discovered inside the bathroom of a KFC in the same town, according to the Marysville Division of Police.
Now, officers are trying to figure out who put the money in the locations — and why.
“Truly bizarre, just weird, especially two times in one week in our town,” Capt. Nate Sachs told WCMH. “It’s disbelief. It’s disbelief and honestly they’re just curious as to why the money would be there in the first place.”
Police said a worker at the Avalon Theater discovered “large amounts of cash in each stall trashcan” while cleaning the women’s bathroom April 27.
An employee later told officers a woman who was at the theater the previous night with her children had exited the bathroom “acting odd,” but it’s unclear if she hid the money, according to a police report.
The cash from the theater included 146 $100 bills and a similar amount of $50 and $20 bills.
On May 2, “a large amount of cash” was found “banded up inside of the toilet tank” at a KFC in the same town, police said. More money was found “laying directly on the top of the toilet mechanism in the tank” in a separate stall.
The $12,270 discovered in the KFC bathroom included 97 $100 bills, according to police.
Officers are investigating the two discoveries and attempting to discern a link between the two.
Sachs said in a statement to McClatchy News the department is “exploring all possibilities, including that they are related.”
“We’re trying to figure out whose money it is, and what possible connection it could be … to anything that we could see in the city,” Sachs told WSYX.
Marysville is about a 35-mile drive northwest from Columbus.
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