“It seemed like just another drop in the bucket for Salvation Army bell ringer Stanley Kennard.

But while he clanked his bell and greeted patrons of Casey’s Foods of Naperville Nov. 19, someone slipped something a bit heftier than pocket change into Kennard’s kettle.

“I didn’t think they would put it in my kettle,” Kennard said of the anonymously dropped, one-ounce gold South African Krugerrand, valued at upwards of $1,200. “What surprised me is that they put it in so early.”

It was Kennard’s, and the Salvation Army’s, first day of bell-ringing for the season when the generous-yet-faceless donor deposited the coin.”

(Photos from TribLocal, Naperville.)

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