Some people are a few dollars richer thanks to a Massachusetts carpenter who intentionally tossed cash from his paycheck into the wind.
A crowd gathered at the busiest Northampton intersection on Thursday afternoon to scrape up the dollar bills thrown into the air by 28-year-old Paul Vidich, who had his $389 paycheck taken out in hundreds of $1 and $2 bills.
Paul, who was wearing a bright pink bow in his hair and described himself as ‘ridiculously frugal,’ said he planned the stunt to demonstrate what he called ‘the absurdity of money’ and how it can have a negative impact on society.
‘I have a lot of money anxiety,’ he said. ‘Money is a large part of the way that I think, and I feel like that’s a very common thing in our world right now.’
A video of the moment by MassLive shows Paul telling the crowd ‘This is like a big wad of my problems,’ before tossing the cash and yelling ‘money!’.
Paul tossed hundreds of $1 and $2 bills at the busiest Northampton intersection on Thursday
Afterwards, according to the news outlet, he said he was happy there was no violence among the crowd of about 30 who gathered to pick up the money, crossing to the center of the street with him when the crosswalk turned green, and catching as much cash as they could before they had to move to not disrupt traffic.
Paul also had another worry that didn’t materialize: That the cash wouldn’t fly seamlessly in the air.
‘I have a fear that the money coming from the bank will be very fresh and all stick together, and not fly everywhere as my dream has it,’ he told MassLive before throwing the money.
Although the crowd appeared ecstatic with the stunt, not everyone thought Paul’s money should’ve been tossed in the air randomly – a woman approached him before the stunt and asked why he didn’t donate the cash to the American citizens suffering in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria instead.
‘You pick it up and give it to them,’ Paul replied.
But Paul said directly handing over to cash to people would better help him deal with his ‘money obsession’.
‘It felt really good,’ Vidich said, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette. ‘I guess what was nicest about it was that I was extremely present, I was extremely “there” for the experience and it was really simple and beautiful and joyful.’