Emmitsburg, MD - Where you do you leave your valuables for safekeeping? Consider this option; leaving some $40,000 worth of rare U.S. coins inside two freezer bags, covered with leaves.
It happened in Frederick County near a Catholic shrine. A woman quietly left $40,000 worth of coins, her life savings, at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes at Mt. St. Mary's University near Emmitsburg.
She says she wanted the Virgin Mary to watch over her money while she was out of town, and it apparently worked. The money was returned to her when she got back a week later.
Operators of the shrine thought they had been blessed with a big donation when a groundskeeper found the two plastic freezer bags filled with gold and silver while raking leaves.
But Shrine Director William Tronolone said the woman approached him after a noon Mass Sunday, six days after the discovery, to ask whether anyone had found the coins.
"I said, 'Why did you leave it there?' And she said, 'Well, I had to go away and I was afraid to leave it and I wanted the Blessed Mother to watch over it for me -- and evidently she did because you found it,"' Tronolone said. (
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