Playing With Money / How a $95,093.35 junk mail check changed Patrick’s life
(Editor’s Note: this article was published on Sept. 17, 2003)
Patrick Combs has a $300 shirt in his backpack. Literally. It’s an old yellow shirt with $300 in one- and five-dollar bills pinned to it. Sitting in a Mission District café, he unzips his backpack to give me a peek and I feel queasy, like I’m looking at porn in a public place. Patrick has extraordinarily knobby, bony hands, and he slowly pulls the shirt, with its bills flapping and rustling, out into the light of day. (Is it worth noting that he once delivered a passing stranger’s baby on Fell Street?) Laid out on the table, the shirt is less titillating, but still disturbing. “Cash is very mesmerizing,” he says, as the bills undulate in the light breeze. Last night, he w… Continue Reading (11 minute read)