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Juan Cano
Malaga
Wednesday, 25 September 2024, 12:00
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Two unknown strangers have mysteriously left an envelope containing 4,100 euros in cash for a homeless man sleeping on the floor next to a lottery office in Malaga city.
The act of kindness happened outside a lottery office called La Tribuna in honour of 'La Tribuna de los Pobres' (the tribune of the poor), where the lottery offiice was for more than 50 years until the city council evicted them so they could do remodelling work on Calle Carretería. From there, the lottery office moved to La Esquinita, as Patricia Carrillo, the owner, calls the small premises they now occupy between Calle Cisneros and Calle Fernán González.
On the afternoon of 20 September, Agustín Giménez, Patricia's husband and president of the Malaga Nuevo Centro shopkeepers' association, arrived at the lottery office around 5pm and found a homeless man on the floor. The same man had already been outside the store in the morning, only this time he was asleep and drunk. He is described as an older, foreign man between 60 and 70 years old who frequents the neighbourhood and has a drinking problem. "He is not a troublemaker at all," Giménez said.
Then, a "charitable soul and good person" approached Giménez to tell him that a couple had left an envelope for the homeless man. According to what he told him, two strangers, a man and a woman, approached him and left a white envelope next to the homeless man. They then turned around and started to walk away, but retraced their steps when they saw the man did not respond and made sure to put the envelope in one of his pockets.
The person who alerted Giménez, who asked to remain anonymous, told him that the envelope appeared to contain money - "you could tell from the little corner that there were notes in it" - and urged him to do something about it as the homeless man was so drunk and drowsy he was at risk of losing it. Giménez asked the "Good Samaritan" about the couple and he told him that he did not know them and had never heard of them. They were simply a middle-aged man and woman who didn't interact with anyone.
Giménez phoned the police and decided to pick up the envelope to prevent someone from stealing it. Giménez waited to open it until the first police patrol arrived. Inside were 4,100 euros in cash in 20 and 50 euro notes. They also found a paper with a handwritten biblical reference as well as a postcard that included some religious text.
The man, who was still semi-conscious, was attended to by social services. He has been fully identified and the money is in the process of being handed over, as intended by the two unknown people who left the envelope. However, no further information is available about them. The lottery office checked their video surveillance system to see if their faces were captured, but they could not be seen due to the angle of the camera.
The next day, Giménez and his wife opened La Esquinita at 10am, still thinking about what had happened the previous afternoon, and closed at 1pm. Barely 15 minutes later, they received a phone call informing them they had sold a ticket for the first prize in the national lottery draw, which went to number 37,984. They not only distributed those 600,000 euros, but their office also sold the number immediately after (85), and the following ones (86 and 87), all of which won prizes. A shower of money followed the shower of generosity.
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