Inhabitants of the south-central Colombia city of Neiva were surprised and caused chaos in the city’s center when an unidentified man suddenly began giving away hundreds of millions of pesos in cash.
According to local police, the allegedly bipolar man had just sold a tractor and decided to share the revenue with the city’s poor in a moment of temporary insanity.
At around 5PM, the man parked his SUV in the middle of the street in the city’s center and began giving away money to strangers. Within minutes, the street was packed with people, some walking away with as much as $150, little less than a month’s work for the majority of working Colombians.
As the situation got out of hand, police tried to stop the man from giving away money and escort him to safety.
However, locals resisted the police, shouting “not to take him away because he’s an angel of God who came to remove us from poverty.”
Unconvinced by the man’s alleged divinity, police did remove the benefactor “for his own protection in an armored car.”
Instead, police took him to hospital where he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
La Nacion journalist Evert Sanchez told newspaper El Tiempo that the majority of beneficiaries of the man’s spontaneous outburst of generosity were poor street vendors, and construction workers and employees at the nearby bus terminal.