---
title: The Strange Gift Someone Dropped Into a Salvation Army Bucket
description: Salvation Army bell-ringers are used to a lot of weird in-kind donations, but this one may be the strangest.
authors:
  - name: Jacob Davidson
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published: '2014-12-22T21:44:58.000Z'
modified: '2014-12-22T21:44:58.000Z'
section: Economy and Politics
tags:
  - Charity
  - donation
  - Donations
  - gold tooth
  - holiday giving
  - Holidays
  - salvation army
  - tooth
  - weird donations
word_count: 179
canonical: https://money.com/salvation-army-gold-tooth/
type: Article
source: structured-blocks
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![141223_EM_SALVATIONBUCKET](https://img.money.com/2014/12/141223_em_salvationbucket1.jpg)

Reuters [reports](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/19/us-usa-missouri-goldtooth-idUSKBN0JX20420141219) that someone has placed a gold tooth into one of the charity's Kansas City donation kettles. The Salvation Army seems to be equal parts grateful and grossed out by this turn of events. "It's the whole tooth, with the root and everything," said Rick Carroll, a local Salvation Army official, in an interview with the wire service. "It really looks strange."

The good news is the tooth does have value—its gold is worth about $100, according to estimates—so the charity might actually be able to make some money here, assuming someone is willing to touch the thing. But the organization is keeping the tooth around for a while in case the donation happened by accident, something Carroll seems to really want to believe.

“What happens is that somebody may have a tooth in their pocket and reach in the pocket to throw all the change in the bucket,” he told Reuters. “We get that with car keys and house keys. It happens more often than you think.”

Yeah, who *doesn't* have a tooth in their pocket?

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