We are more likely to associate public bathrooms with annoying lines and unwelcome odors than great mysteries. However, for people in the town of Marysville, Ohio, bathrooms are at the center of an ongoing puzzle.
First, more than $20,000 was found in a bathroom at the Avalon Theater – an 88-year-old fixture in the Marysville area – in late April, according to a report from WCMH. Then, another $10,000 was found in the bathroom of a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant.
“They were hidden in a way that you would have to know where to look to find them. Wasn’t like you walk in and they were behind a trash can or anything like that. It was hidden,” explained Marysville Police Division (MPD) Capt. Nate Sachs. He said employees at both locations found the cash.
So far, authorities are stumped as to why and how tens of thousands of dollars ended up hanging out near public toilets. Last week, WBNS reported that the local police department may work with the Secret Service or the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to find out if the money is connected to any ongoing cases.
Sachs called the findings “truly bizarre, just weird, especially two times in one week in our town.”
Marysville has a population of a little more than 27,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s around 27 miles northwest of Columbus, Ohio.
“It’s disbelief,” Sachs, who said he’s never seen anything like this in his 18-year-career, continued. “It’s disbelief and honestly they’re just curious as to why the money would be there in the first place.”
Around a decade ago, a man who found just $200 in a Missouri Walmart made headlines in the Springfield News-Leader. Last April, Audacy reported on instance of people finding $200,000 in another usual place: an Oregon interstate.
Sachs said authorities do not believe anymore large stashes of cash will pop up in Marysville bathrooms, and police don’t recommend that people search local loos for money.
“We’re looking at the avenues that they’re probably connected. At this point with an open investigation, we have not linked it up yet but anything’s possible at this point. We’re just looking at everything,” Sachs explained.