A safe gamble

[The Straight Story]

A safe gamble
A Roosevelt Middle School auction features a unique find

At Roosevelt Middle School in south Eugene, dozens will gather Friday evening as a locksmith opens a safe that Peter Pomponi, a Roosevelt parent, found in the 1900s-era farmhouse that he owns in Grants Pass.

The person with the keenest interest on Friday is likely to be whoever submitted the highest bid for the safe — and for anything and everything inside it. That’s because Pomponi has donated the safe, and its contents, as part of a Roosevelt Middle School Showcase fundraiser.

What’s inside?

“My imagination ran wild,” said Pomponi of finding the nearly 2-foot-by-2-foot safe “secreted away behind a false panel” while clearing out a woodshop on the farm property two years ago.

“I know it’s not full of gold because I was able to rock it,” said Pomponi, who works for an environmental engineering company. “But it took two strong people to load it into my car. It must weigh between 200 and 300 pounds.”

Pomponi wasn’t sure what to do with the safe until he learned that Roosevelt — where his 13-year-old daughter, Isabella Oedekoven Pomponi, is in seventh grade — was staging its first online auction. Donating the safe and its contents seemed like a perfect win-win.

http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/29770846-75/safe-pomponi-roosevelt-auction-bidding.html.csp

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I'd be willing to bet

that this safe contains as much booty as what was contained within Al Capone's safe. I'd auction it off in a heartbeat, certain that it contained nothing of value.

[Brickbat]

2. There could be all sorts of things in there that you wouldn't want to find in front of a

middle-school fundraiser. Still, a great story, and a good idea by the owner.