Mystery newspaper buyer leaves history behind
For the past couple of weeks, someone has been leaving history tucked into the display windows of the green Star Tribune newspaper boxes.
Since Nov. 16, five newspapers bearing headlines from historic moments replaced the day’s paper in boxes in Minneapolis, including at Chicago Avenue and Lake Street, and the others around the Longfellow neighborhood.
Star Tribune chief marketing officer Steve Yaeger said a delivery driver found the first old paper, and other drivers and the public have since reported others.
"They've all been very newsy. Sen. [Robert] Kennedy's assasination, 9/11, President Ford taking the oath of office, the moon walk, things of that nature,” Yaeger said.
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While it’s not clear who is behind the substitutions, Yaeger said that this is not a marketing scheme by the paper.
“We assume this person is a newspaper lover,” he said. “In addition to leaving a vintage newspaper, he or she is also taking the Star Tribune they paid for.”
The person or persons have left copies of the Minneapolis Star or Tribune, as well as the Duluth Herald and the Duluth News-Tribune.
"It is fun and that's the way we're taking it,” Yaeger said. “I would never encourage anyone to use the boxes for anything but their intended purposes, but considering they are buying a newspaper we consider it a fair trade."