By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

In Jeonju of North Jeolla Province, a ``mystery'' Santa Clause comes to town every year.

Around 2 p.m. Tuesday, a worker of Nosong-dong Residents' Center in the city received a phone call from a man, presumably in his 30s, who said, ``Go to the flowerbed next to the parking lot entrance,'' and hung up.

The worker went to the parking lot and found a box, in which was placed 20 million won ($15,000) in cash, a piggy bank containing 381,000 won and a note that read: ``Cheer up, child breadwinners.''

The secret Santa has donated money 10 times since 2000 but has never been seen. A broadcaster set up a hidden camera at the center a few years ago to find out who the Santa was, but failed.

The first donation began in April 2000 when an elementary schoolboy brought a piggy bank with 584,000 won in it to the center on behalf of him. In 2001, a 20-something woman came forward bearing 7.4 million won.

As people began to pay attention to him, he has left cash or piggy banks in flowerbeds or payphone booths and called the center to tell of the location since 2002. The total money he has donated is more than 81 million won.

The center workers suspect the Santa is not rich but an ordinary person living in Nosong-dong, and donates what he has collected each year.

``We are glad that such a warmhearted person lives here. As the Santa wants, we will distribute the 20 million won to 100 households with child breadwinners in the area,'' Park Myeong-hee, head of the residents' center, said.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr