Salvation Army finds gold in a kettle

Quarters, nickels, dimes and lots of pennies, that's the usual haul inside a Salvation Army kettle. <br/><br/>Imagine the surprise when they found something really big down there with all that change.

Wednesday, December 7th 2005, 12:46 pm

By: News On 6

Quarters, nickels, dimes and lots of pennies, that's the usual haul inside a Salvation Army kettle.

Imagine the surprise when they found something really big down there with all that change. A gold Krugerrand turned up in the kettle at the Sapulpa Wal-Mart. News on 6 reporter Rick Wells hustled on over to Sapulpa to have a look.

Look what turned up in the bottom of a Salvation Army kettle in Sapulpa. Salvation Army Captain Ronald Moss: "As we were going through the counting this one really stood out." I should say it's not the normal contribution; it's a gold Krugerrand, one ounce of gold. Not something one would carry around in a pocket or purse. "You know, what a surprise, a big boost to our efforts here at the Salvation Army."

Captain Ronald Moss is the Commander of the Salvation Army in Creek County and he says they will assist almost 300 families this holiday season with food gifts and clothes. "We've also identified 12 Katrina-Rita survivors living in Creek County that we are also assisting above that."

They were concerned contributions because of the hurricane disasters might affect Christmas donations, and they are down but not much. So the gold coin will help.

Unusual to say the least and at first they weren't sure what they had. It was about the size of a half dollar coin, it was a gold color with a deer on one side. "We started getting more excited." He got on the Internet to check on the value; a week ago it was $502. "This morning when I checked the gold market it was at $525." And gold is expected to go even higher, a temptation to hold on to it for a while, but. "This is something we did get in the kettle and the donor had an intention that that was what it was for." So it'll get put to work soon.

The Salvation Army in the Tulsa area will help more than 4,000 families this Christmas. One way you can help, is by stopping by the Angel Tree at Woodland Hills Mall.