Aug 14, 2007 9:32 am US/Eastern
Pyramid Of Pennies Created For Charity
Penny Pyramid Reaches 3 Feet High
It Weighs More Than A Ton
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MIRAMAR (CBS4) ―
A South Florida penny pincher with an uncommon hobby has landed him a spot in the new book "Ripley's Believe It or Not, The Remarkable…Revealed", which documents strange hobbies and oddities.
That's because Marcelo Bezos of Miramar has been building a pyramid of pennies in the center of his living room for the past two years.
The pyramid reaches nearly 3 feet high and weighs more than a ton.
Bezos, a University of Miami facilities administrator for the Miller School of Medicine, had hoped to make it into the Guiness Book of Records for coin stacking but his claim was rejected because of a lack of third party observers.
Bezos works on his unique project in the middle of the night, after his two kids have gone to bed. Sometimes, his kids actually help by breaking open rolls of pennies, but since there weren't enough outside witnesses watching him build the penny pyramid, the folks at Guiness denied his claim.
But Bezos says he didn't build the giant mound of money for his own personal glory. He is trying to raise awareness for colorectal cancer, which a close family member recently died from. This father-in-law, Carlos Conde, died after he started the penny project.
Colorectal cancer causes about 56,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.
So far, his plan is working because a group of kids in eight Miami-Dade community centers will start stacking their own mini-penny pyramids for charity.
The pyramid pennies will be donated to the children's charities of choice.
Bezos started stacking coins in January 2006, using pennies he had collected and stored since childhood. Now he buys pennies at banks and relies on donations from friends and relatives.
Bezos plans to keep building until he reaches half a million pennies. Currently, it has 400,000 coins worth $4,000 but if you melt it down, it's actually worth about $8,000 because the old copper pennies are worth more.
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