London: Money may not grow on trees — but for the residents of one lucky town, it has started popping through the letterbox.
Bewildered householders in Colchester have had hundreds of pounds in cash posted anonymously through their doors.
The recipients all live on the same road in the Essex town — and were stunned when the mystery money dropped on to their doormats among the usual daily post.
Lesley Quilter, 58, said she has been “going crazy” trying to work out who would want to send her £200.
Her neighbour has also received an envelope containing £100, again with no note or name on it.
Quilter said: “I was shocked when I opened the envelope. I just thought it would be an invitation or something like that — it really is driving us nuts because we have no idea who is sending it. It it lovely but I would like to thank them for it.”
Quilter’s cash arrived in an envelope measuring 6in by 6in and was folded inside a sheet of lined writing paper. The postmark was smudged — but her neighbour’s cash came in an envelope posted within the region.
The mystery deepened when Quilter’s brother-in-law, who also used to live in Wickham Road, was gifted £200 which was sent to his address in the nearby village of Fingringhoe. He moved in 1979 — so the mystery mailer appears to know the people he or she is sending the bank notes to.
Quilter added: “From the writing on the envelope it looks like an elderly person, possibly female, but we have no idea who it is.
“Whoever sent it knew my brother-in-law had moved and knew his new address.”
Quilter has even contacted friends and former neighbours in a bid to solve the riddle but so far no-one has confessed to being the generous donor.
Doreen Neal, 86, who received the cash in £20 notes, said the only link between the three recipients was that they had all lived in the road.
She wouldn’t even have known there were other people who had been sent the cash by the mystery benefactor if a friend of hers hadn’t mentioned what had happened to an acquaintance of Quilter.
She added: “I know Lesley but we’re not really friends and we don’t go out together. And I don’t know her brother-in-law at all.”
The retired office worker receives a state pension and modest private pension and said she hadn’t mentioned needing money to anyone as she was fairly “comfortable”.
Royal Mail last night confirmed a code on the postmark from Neal’s letter showed it had been collected from a post box somewhere in the Chelmsford area.
The details were indecipherable on Quilter’s letter, although the handwriting suggests they were sent by the same person.
No other residents in the street appear to have received any cash in the post. But one said: “I wouldn’t say no”.
