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Minn. Man Ticketed For Making It Snow Money At Mall Of America

Here's the best Black Friday story we missed: A Minn. man who was down on his luck, decided to spread some holiday cheer at the Mall of America on Friday by dropping 1,000 dollar bills from the fourth floor of the rotunda as a three-person choir sang Let It Snow.

Serge Vorobyov, who goes by "Serge The Car Hauler," posted video of his exploit and you'd be surprised just how calm shoppers were as they noticed money falling from the sky:

As you might have expected, this story has a twist. The Minnesota Star Tribune reports Bloomington police cited Vorobyov for disorderly conduct, saying he was pulling a publicity stunt to get back together with his wife.

The paper adds:

"According to police, Vorobyov admitted throwing the money, which he had stamped with his YouTube address to direct people to it. He was cited for causing the disruption and released at the scene.

"Mall of America spokeswoman Sarah Schmidt said it's the first time anyone has ever done something like that in the mall, but added that Vorobyov disrupted the performance and could've caused a serious situation."

Vorobyov responded by posting another video on YouTube. He said he spent his last $1,000 on the stunt, because he has been going through some tough times and wanted to make others happy.

He just went through a divorce he said and his wife took the cat and wouldn't even tell him where it is. If you look at the video, he said, you can see people enjoyed themselves.

"I don't see how holiday cheer is disorderly conduct," Vorobyov said.

h/t: NPR's Andrew Prince.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.