Japanese city devastated by tsunami receives gift of gold worth $250,000

(AP)

A Japanese port city that was hit by the 2011 tsunami last week received anonymous parcels containing gold worth more than $250,000, the AFP reported.

The mystery gift is being called a "goodwill gold rush" ahead of the second anniversary of the disaster.

The president of the company that runs the port in the northeastern city of Ishinomaki received a parcel containing two slabs of gold each weighing 1 kilogram, or about 2 pounds, according to AFP.

"Since it was labeled as 'miscellaneous goods,' I casually opened the box," Kunio Sunow, president of the Ishinomaki Fish Market, told AFP.

"I was stunned because what's in there was 24k gold in two plates. One was wrapped in brown paper and the other in a page taken from a magazine -- both were sitting in bubble sheets," he said.