Saint Joseph police officers are helping an anonymous donor pass out cash to needy residents.
Captain Jeff Wilson said a man who wanted to remain anonymous came to the police department with a $2000 donation.
“This $2,000 was in cash and this donor graciously asked that officers hand this money out in $100 increments to people that they feel might be really needing this money to help them out during the holiday season,” Wilson said. “Since that time we’ve been giving money to several different officers on several different shifts in the patrol division and they’ve been handing out $100 bills to people.”
Wilson said the donation was about two weeks ago. As of Monday, he said around $1,000 has already been given away. He said it’s up to the officers to decide who gets the money.
“It’s really just one of those instances that officers are on a call and they get just this feeling that this person may really need this at this time and they just hand the money out,” Wilson said.
He said people who have received the surprise donations have been very appreciative.
“Some officers went to a residence they just had remembered a lady that they had dealt with who was going through some problems so they went to her residence and she was actually surprised to see them. She thought they were there for some sort of enforcement issue and they were able to tell her, ‘hey we’re just here to help you out. We know you probably need this.’ And explained where the money came from and were able to give her $100 and actually put her in tears,” Wilson said.
Wilson said they hope to hand out all of the money before Christmas.
“The officers really like when programs like this come across and they’re able to go out and put a different spin on what they do,” Wilson said. “The officers give of themselves every day in trying to serve our community but to go out and be able to do something like this and help people out in a non enforcement like situation we hope they appreciate it as much as we appreciate having the opportunity to do it.”
We reported on a similar anonymous donation in Hutchison, Kan. several days ago. Police there were handing out $100 bills to the needy thanks to an anonymous donor. Wilson said he doesn’t even know who the donor is.