A construction worker in the Memorial Union received an early holiday present when he found $400 in a wall he was tearing down.

Roger Ferris, the Union’s operations manager, said a worker from Taylor Ball, a Des Moines construction firm, was breaking down a wall of hollow clay tiles when he broke into one area and found $400 in $20 bills rolled up and held together with ponytail holders.

The money was found in a bathroom wall that had a vent above the men’s toilet. Ferris said he thought someone had been “stashing the money for a drug exchange” and “either forgot the money was there or was busted.”

The dates of the bills ranged from 1952 to1968. Ferris said he thought they were placed in the wall in the late 1960s or early 70s. “Those were tumultuous times during the Vietnam War. There were a lot of strange people in and out of the Union,” he said.

The man, who found the money on Thanksgiving Day, was allowed to keep it.

“We’re operating under the ‘finder’s keepers, loser’s weepers’ principal,” Ferris said. “I told him he could keep the money. And he said, ‘You bet. That’s an early Christmas for us, and now we can buy presents.'”

Ferris said the construction workers have been working 14 and 15 hour days, seven days a week. “The foreman said the other workers started tearing down walls all over place after the money was found,” he said.

In another section of the Union, a 1935 Iowa State Daily clipping advertising a Clark Gable movie was found along with old candy bar wrappers. They were found in a fire pit in the west lounge.

Ferris said he expects more unusual findings during the renovations of the Union.

“There are a lot of crawl spaces and niches in the area,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to find Jimmy Hoffa or anything.”

Ferris said he hopes to put the discoveries on display.

“We want to show what the Union has done for the last 67-68 years. It’s served a lot of people,” he said.

Ferris said he and Kathy Svec, marketing coordinator for the Union, have talked about putting in a time capsule in the new walls of the Union.