Mysterious American Offered Taxi Driver $200,000 to sign petition supporting Greenland Joining the US
An elderly man offered a Nuuk taxi driver a large sum of money to sign what appeared to be a petition aimed at making Greenland part of the United States.
“Would you like 200,000 dollars?” the man asked taxi driver Danny Brandt.
Taxi driver Danny Brandt thought he had picked up an ordinary customer on Wednesday afternoon outside the taxi line at Hotel Hans Egede.
The elderly man, with short white hair and dressed casually, got into the cab, introduced himself as “Cliff,” and began speaking English with what Danny Brandt describes as a “heavy American accent.”
Brandt asked where he was from.
“Las Vegas,” the passenger replied immediately.
The two then chatted about gambling and blackjack, Danny Brandt told KNR.
But when the short ride ended outside the man’s destination, Hotel Søma, and the passenger was about to get out, the conversation took a dramatic turn.
“Would you like 200,000 dollars?” Danny Brandt recalls the man saying.
“For what?” Brandt replied.
“That’s the spirit,” “Cliff” responded, according to Brandt.
The man explained that Danny Brandt could receive 200,000 dollars by signing something.
“Signing what?” Brandt asked again.
Mysterious Offer to Taxi Driver
The man then showed him a stack of papers resting on his lap. On the top page, written in large bold letters, was something about a petition to make Greenland part of the United States.
Danny Brandt recalls that the document mentioned collecting signatures from “85 percent.”
He assumes this referred to signatures from 85 percent of the voting population.
Annoyed but professionally polite, Danny Brandt declined the offer, handed the papers back to the man, and said:
“I will never become part of the United States, neither under Donald Trump nor any other American president.”
“Okay, I respect that,” the man replied respectfully, according to Brandt, before stepping out of the taxi, looking at him, and saying:
“Just wait and see. You’re going to remember my name, Cliff. In January, your wife, your children, your parents — all of you Greenlanders — will each receive 200,000 dollars.”
Danny Brandt later described the incident in a Facebook post that quickly circulated among Greenlandic users on social media Wednesday afternoon.
Another person commented on the post saying they had received the same offer from the man outside Katuaq while walking toward Hotel Hans Egede.
Danny Brandt later reported the incident to the police and met with officers while cleaning his taxi.
“The police seemed very serious about it. They wanted to know every detail,” he said.
—KNR (Greenlandic Broadcasting Corporation)