Cardboard box filled with a $180,000 cash donation mailed to The City College of New York

Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by IvyGold

(CNN) Physics professor Vinod Menon doesn't get much mail at the office, so when The City College of New York (CCNY) returned to in-person classes this semester, he was greeted with some junk mail and a nondescript package in a battered cardboard box.

Menon, the chairman of the physics department, at first thought it was some sort of memento sent by a former student, but when he opened the box on September 1, he found stacks for $50 and $100 bills -- $180,000 in all.

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"I've never seen this kind of money in real life in cash form," Menon told CNN. "I've never seen it except in movies, and so, yeah, I was shell shocked and I just did not know how to react."

There was an unsigned letter in the package explaining that the donor graduated "long ago" from The City College of New York with a double major in physics and mathematics, then got an MA in physics there and went on to get a double PhD in physics and astronomy.

"Assuming that you are (a) bit curious as to why I am doing this, the reason is straightforward: the excellent educational opportunity available to me -- which I took full advantage of at CCNY (and Stuyvesant High School) -- gave me the basis to continue to develop," the letter said.

11twofour on December 22nd, 2021 at 02:21 UTC »

How is a person smart enough to get a double PhD in physics and astronomy but dumb enough to send a box of cash halfway across the country?

ricksza on December 22nd, 2021 at 00:19 UTC »

It was originally $250K.

drafter69 on December 21st, 2021 at 23:12 UTC »

Doesn't sound like the mail room is very talented