CHEYENNE — There are plenty of theories swirling around about just how a $5 bill seemed to appear out of nowhere and float onto the bar at VFW Post 1881, ranging from the practical to supernatural.
If you ask post member Dan Dial, it was the ghost of Darrel Anderson, a longtime VFW member who died about 10 years ago.
Anderson was just buying Dial another beer for old time’s sake, he said.
“Yeah, I like to think of it as Darrell just bought us a beer,” Dial told Cowboy State Daily about the unsettling experience last Wednesday night.
A video from surveillance cameras inside Post 1881 captured the scene, where Dial is standing at the bar with another member when an errant $5 bill seems to float in out of nowhere and land right next to him on the bar.
“It certainly was surprising, because there was nobody behind us or around us,” Dial said. “The first inclination was there used to be this old veteran who I used to take care of who passed away about 10 years ago.”
That was Anderson.
Judging by the video, maybe that was Dial’s second thought. His first seems to be total bewilderment, along with his drinking partner.
The bill floats in, lands on the bar, and the two men turn in tandem to look behind them with confusion on their faces.
“You could certainly see our surprise,” said Dial, who’s since reviewed the video multiple times.
A male voice on the video laughs as he comments, “it just come from nowhere, bro. Isn’t that the damnedest thing?”
Jason Harper, the post’s senior vice commander, was next to Dial at the bar when the ghost bill appeared.
Harper said he was every bit as bewildered as the video shows.
“I thought maybe somebody was behind us throwing money at us,” he said. “But nobody was there, it was just a ghost who came out of nowhere.”
Had To Have Come From Somewhere
After Post 1881 shared the video, people weighed in online about the origins of the five-spot.
“Watch closely — a wild $5 bill literally manifests out of thin air right onto the bar!” the post exclaims. “We’re currently looking into whether this counts as ‘unexpected revenue’ or if we need to set up a membership card for the supernatural.”
A couple theorized that the bar must have dollars and other bills tacked to the ceiling.
“Nope,” Dial said. “There are no bills on the ceiling. The only thing on the ceiling are some military tiles.
“In fact, above that seat is my tile. There are absolutely no dollar bills on the ceiling.”
Another eagle-eyed observer said the bill fell from something hanging over the bar, which was being blown by the air conditioning. On closer inspection, it does seem to come from there.
That makes sense, Dial said, because he knows of some people who will stash things out of the way in little nooks above the bar. It’s possible someone had left it there earlier.
“There’s an overhan above that bar and a few of us tend to store things there, and the fans were running that night,” he said. “That’s the only solution we can come up with.”
Harper agrees, adding that the fans in the post were blowing the air around pretty good that evening.
“I’m sure there was a $5 bill on that little ledge there,” he said. “But the timing of it was just perfect, and it landed just where the only two people at the bar were standing. There was nobody else at the bar.”
He also added his own theory: “Maybe it was some sort of time machine from the future.”
Yeah, It’s Haunted
Even if that’s what happened, Dial still likes to think it was a sign from the ghost of a former veteran and Post 1881 member, “just saying hi.”
That the $5 floated down on what used to be Anderson’s normal seat when he drank at the VFW says something, Dial believes.
“He’s very missed, absolutely, and was a character,” he said, adding that now he feels that seat at the bar is his lucky spot.
“That’s my normal seat, so yeah, it’s lucky,” Dial said.
“It couldn’t have landed more perfect between us, like somebody put it there for a reason,” he said.
Besides, people have been saying for years that the post is haunted, Dial added.
“Oh goodness, people have been (having encounters) with ghosts for years,” he said. “There’s a bartender here who’s scared to death of ghosts.
“He hasn’t seen the video yet, so we’re anxious to share it with him. He may not come back to work.”
Did Dial take Anderson up on his offer from the other side to buy him a beer?
“Nope. We were afraid to spend it,” he said. “So, we framed it and put it up on the wall.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
