This is a puzzling situation filled with piggy banks.
A beachgoer in Texas has unearthed over 50 piggy banks that appeared on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, yet the origin remains a mystery.
Jace Tunnell, a marine biologist from the Hart Institute, found 60 vibrant piggy banks on various beaches in South Texas this year, including 14 in a single day. He thinks they may have either been abandoned by frustrated customers or perhaps they’re the result of an accident at sea.
Tunnell noted that all the piggy banks he collected, along with those gathered by other beach clean-up volunteers on Bolivar Peninsula and South Padre Island, likely came from South America or the Caribbean.
He suggested that this influx of plastic banks might be linked to a cargo spill or an incident involving a container ship, although the markings on the banks could provide important hints to clarify the situation.
“Once they are used, you’ll notice lots of dents. There’s no other way to retrieve the money, so people toss them, whether directly into the sea or on land,” Tunnell explained.
Interestingly, some of the banks looked brand new, suggesting they might have been discarded shortly after purchase or possibly even by manufacturers.
Tunnell speculated that the banks floated to the Texas coast because they were empty, which made them easy to carry away by ocean currents.
He added that none of the recovered piggy banks contained any money and warned hopeful treasure seekers not to set their expectations too high.
“Whenever I post about this, I get people asking, ‘What was inside? Did you find any money?’ I have to tell them, it’s just a Sand Dollar. That’s all I’ve found,” Tunnell shared.
Despite his years of experience in marine matters, he admits he can’t definitively say why these banks are turning up in such large numbers.
“Maybe the Gulf Coast is just saving up for something big, one bank at a time,” Tunnell speculated in a column for the local paper.
