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Secret Santas hand out $11,000

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DETROIT, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Dressed as Santas, a married couple handed out $11,000 in cash in an area of Detroit hit by the auto crisis, high unemployment and home foreclosures.

Accompanied by a police officer, the couple withdrew $11,000 in crisp $100 bills from their bank and distributed it Monday in Detroit's Lincoln Park, The Detroit Free Press reported.

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The recipients responded with disbelief, laughter, tears and shouts of joy as the anonymous Santas, who said they had enough money to live comfortably, distributed their cash to low-income mothers and the elderly.

The couple said they were inspired by Larry Stewart, a Secret Santa for three decades in Kansas City, Mo., before his death in 2007. Today, Stewart's legacy is lived on through Secret Santas in Charlotte, N.C.; Phoenix, St. Louis and now metro Detroit.

Detroit's recipients included David Griffor, 73, who just got out of the hospital and his wife, Emily, 70, who said money has been in short supply.

"I'm going to get my two little grandbabies something for Christmas, which I couldn't afford to do," Emily Griffor said of the $200 gifted to her.

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