The headline was outrageous, everyone agreed. But it was also accurate. More accurate than anyone realized.'Million dollar cache found at ex-millionaire's estate' was the headline in Reuters, and therefore almost all the other newspapers used this story. It was a pithy three paragraphs:
"On June 29 a college student vacationing in Somerby, Vermont had a find of a lifetime when she stumbled upon the hidden savings of an eccentric millionaire recluse, Austin Nijkamp. The college student, whose name has been withheld due to ongoing police investigation, found several plastic boxes filled with hundred dollar banknotes in the remains of a carriage house near the Nijkamp estate.Nijkamp perished in a fire twenty years before, in what some believe to be a suicide. In 1980 Nijkamp's estate and business were in bankruptcy when a fire broke out in his mansion. To this day, the cause is undermined, yet local police suspected arson. Burlington police detective Kevin Namara commented "It's likely Nijkamp was squirreling away money due to the bankruptcy. Who knows how many millions more burned in that mansion?"
The money is being held by authorities while the search goes on for other caches on the estate. It's not clear who will receive the money after the investigation but one fortunate college student may end up getting extra spending money or maybe a full scholarship."
As far I knew no one had offered me a share of the money or a scholarship, but I guessed the writer was trying to juice up a story that had very few concrete details. "No one's asked me how I knew where the money was or whether I thought there was more." I told my sister that night on Whatsapp. She insisted on using a VPN, because 'you never know who's listening'. I couldn't blame her for being paranoid after what she'd been through, but I was happy she thought I'd done the right thing. Before the call I'd imagined her telling me how stupid I was for surrendering the money to the police. It had been tempting. Staring at those stacks of hundred dollar bills. I'd guessed there was over a hundred thousand dollars from how heavy the box had been, but somehow the actual count of a million made me feel even relieved I hadn't held onto it. Keeping that kind of a secret for so long would've destroyed me. It had destroyed Austin Nijkamp's family. Money was not the answer it was supposed to be when you weren't supposed to have it. "Maybe you could've given it to a charity." Annette said at one point. "You know, like a few hundred here, a few hundred there. No one would question you."I had thought it about. "No," I told her. "At some point someone would notice a college student receiving federal loans spending thousands on charities, because they do track donations. And I still would've gotten into trouble.
— siobhan
"On June 29 a college student vacationing in Somerby, Vermont had a find of a lifetime when she stumbled upon the hidden savings of an eccentric millionaire recluse, Austin Nijkamp. The college student, whose name has been withheld due to ongoing police investigation, found several plastic boxes filled with hundred dollar banknotes in the remains of a carriage house near the Nijkamp estate.Nijkamp perished in a fire twenty years before, in what some believe to be a suicide. In 1980 Nijkamp's estate and business were in bankruptcy when a fire broke out in his mansion. To this day, the cause is undermined, yet local police suspected arson. Burlington police detective Kevin Namara commented "It's likely Nijkamp was squirreling away money due to the bankruptcy. Who knows how many millions more burned in that mansion?"
The money is being held by authorities while the search goes on for other caches on the estate. It's not clear who will receive the money after the investigation but one fortunate college student may end up getting extra spending money or maybe a full scholarship."
As far I knew no one had offered me a share of the money or a scholarship, but I guessed the writer was trying to juice up a story that had very few concrete details. "No one's asked me how I knew where the money was or whether I thought there was more." I told my sister that night on Whatsapp. She insisted on using a VPN, because 'you never know who's listening'. I couldn't blame her for being paranoid after what she'd been through, but I was happy she thought I'd done the right thing. Before the call I'd imagined her telling me how stupid I was for surrendering the money to the police. It had been tempting. Staring at those stacks of hundred dollar bills. I'd guessed there was over a hundred thousand dollars from how heavy the box had been, but somehow the actual count of a million made me feel even relieved I hadn't held onto it. Keeping that kind of a secret for so long would've destroyed me. It had destroyed Austin Nijkamp's family. Money was not the answer it was supposed to be when you weren't supposed to have it. "Maybe you could've given it to a charity." Annette said at one point. "You know, like a few hundred here, a few hundred there. No one would question you."I had thought it about. "No," I told her. "At some point someone would notice a college student receiving federal loans spending thousands on charities, because they do track donations. And I still would've gotten into trouble.
— siobhan
Comments
Post a Comment