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Anonymous Couple Drops $500,000 Check Into Salvation Army Kettle

MINNEAPOLIS (CBS/AP) — This is one check the Salvation Army is counting on to clear.

Salvation Army officials in Minnesota and North Dakota say a couple dropped a $500,000 check into a red kettle outside a Cub Foods in suburban Minneapolis on Saturday.

Spokeswoman Annette Bauer says it's the biggest check ever in the Minneapolis area and likely the biggest ever in the two states.

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Bauer says the couple has a history of donations and prefers to remain anonymous. She said they alerted Salvation Army officials that the check was coming and asked them to open the kettle and remove the check before volunteers who count donations could see their names.

Bauer called it "an astonishing gift" and that the division was running about a half-million dollars behind the same point last year.

In 2011, a donor dropped a check for $10,000 into a Salvation Army kettle in Menlo Park outside of a grocery store.

<em>(TM and © Copyright 2010 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or Redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)</em>

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