Aug. 6 (UPI) — Waste collection workers in Ohio were able to reunite $25,000 cash with the family that accidentally threw it out while helping a grandmother clean her home.
Republic Services officials in Lorain County said a call came in last week from a family who reported an envelope containing $25,000 had accidentally been thrown in the trash just before the garbage truck came through the area.
“They were cleaning out their house for their grandmother and they cleaned out the refrigerator, threw out all the garbage, grabbed all the freezer stuff and put it in a bag, and then the grandma was like, ‘Hey, there’s an envelope with $25,000 in there, don’t lose that,’ and she’s like, ‘Grandma, I already lost that, it’s in the garbage,'” operations supervisor Gary Capan told WEWS-TV.
Capan said his team was able to contact the truck driver before he reached the landfill, and he was diverted to a recycling facility in Oberlin so workers could go through the contents of his vehicle.
Dan Schoewe, the operations manager at the recycling center, said it only took about 10 minutes of searching to locate the right bag.
Schoewe said it felt good to be able to provide a happy ending for the story.
“It can be very, very difficult. It’s rare that we can find something for somebody. So this is like the biggest one I’ve seen in 30 years,” Schoewe said.
Sanitation workers in New Jersey were able to facilitate a similar reunion in May, when a woman’s 10-year-old son accidentally threw away the bag where she had stored her wallet, wedding ring and a few other precious items.
Atlantic County Utilities Authority searched for about 1 1/2 hours and were able to return the items to Ruth Watson.