There once was a woman named Ida Mayfield Wood…perhaps you’ve heard of her.  She lived in squalor in a couple of rooms at New York’s Herald Square Hotel.  By the time of her death in 1932, Ida had hoarded nearly $1 million in cash in her hotel room.  The money was stuffed in pots and pans.  A diamond necklace was even found inside a Cracker Jack box.

Ida was found to have $10,000 in cash sealed around her  waist.

For some reason her story has stuck with me since I first heard it and she has come to mind several times in…

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