Mystery drone drops cash on downtown lunch crowd
By Todd Chance
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A mystery drone operator dropped cash on people at Rosa Parks Circle in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, prompting people to scream with excitement while scurrying to grab bills from the ground.
MLive creative consultant Melvin Blohm was among those at the downtown location about 12:30 p.m. and captured a quick video of the unmanned aircraft.
“It was hovering over the center of the circle and after a couple of minutes it dropped what appeared to be money,” Blohm stated. “Once people realized the cash was real, they swarmed to pick it up.”
Blohm said the money appeared to be all single dollar bills and estimated about $50 was dropped before the drone flew off. Blohm believes the operators of the device were standing on top of the JW Marriott hotel.
“I saw two people on top of the JW walking toward the direction of where the drone was turning. It appeared that they were controlling it,” Blohm said.
Blohm said it appeared the drone dropped cash from one of four compartments in the device. A second compartments already was empty, and the remaining two held more cash, he said.
When contacted, officials at the JW Marriott expressed no knowledge of a planned promotion or scheduled drone flight.
