Charity shop worker's $55k find while sorting donated clothes
A charity shop worker who found a large sum of money in a pile of donated clothes said she initially didn't believe it was real.
Andrea Lessing, who works at a Goodwill store in Oklahoma, made the unusual discovery while recently sorting through items to make sure they were in decent condition to be sold.
She was handling two sweaters when Ms Lessing noticed they were wrapped around what felt like books, local news station KFOR reported.
However, much to her surprise, the donated jumpers were found to be wrapped around stacks of envelopes containing $100 bills.
Ms Lessing, who had only been working for Goodwill for about a month, thought the notes were fake at first, but a closer inspection proved they were real and added up to $42,000 ($A55,000).
Instead of pocketing the money for herself, Ms Lessing handed the cash over.
“I have a daughter, I love her very much and you can’t put a price on my daughter,” she told KFOR.
“I know what could be risked stealing that money and I do believe in karma. I do believe that if you do something good, something good will come back to you.”
Usually it is hard to track down a donor, however personal documents were mixed in with the cash.
“Normally we have no way of knowing who the money belongs to,” Frank Holland, Vice President of Donated Goods at Goodwill, told KFOR.
“Even if we wanted to try to give it back to someone, there was no way to find who that person was.”
The anonymous donor, who has since been reunited with her money, gifted Ms Lessing $A1300 as a thank you.
Ms Lessing said her daughter's birthday is coming up, so she plans on spending the money on an "amazing" party.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
