Two college graduates and a SUNY New Paltz student had just settled into their new couch last March when a plastic envelope was discovered under one of its arms.
Inside was a stack of twenty dollar bills amounting to $700.
New Paltz geology student Reese Werkhoven told The Little Rebellion,
I almost peed.
The three began dissecting the couch, searching every tiny crevice of the Salvation Army purchase for more money.
And 20 minutes later, Werkhoven, New Paltz graduate Lara Russo and Mount Holyoke graduate Cally Guasti were the proud owners of $40,000 in cash distributed in a series of envelopes.
The celebration came to a halt, however, when Russo found a woman’s name on one of the envelopes. She explained,
We had a lot of moral discussions about the money. We all agreed that we had to bring the money back to whoever it belonged to… it’s their money — we didn’t earn it. However, there were a lot of gray areas we had to consider.
They each called their parents for advice, and the general opinion was not to spend the money, don’t tell anyone about it and try to locate the woman on the envelope.
Werkhoven’s mother called the following morning to say that she had found the woman’s name in the phone book.
Werkhoven dialed the number after work and sure enough, she picked up.
He told her about what they found and she immediately replied “oh, I left a lot of money in that couch.”
Werkhoven was astounded at the lack of appreciation the woman expressed when he promised that the money would be returned.
She was so emotionless, Werkhoven said, that the three were fearing they were about to give money back to a drug dealer or some other sort of criminal.
The housemates set out for her home in the Hudson Valley later that day.
Their suspicions were seemingly confirmed when they drove up to three “beware of dog” signs and multiple mounted cameras.
But a massive sigh of relief was breathed when the woman’s daughter and granddaughter greeted them at the creaking front door.
Werkhoven said,
I could just tell right away that these were nice people.
They then met the woman, who explained why the money was in the couch.
According to The Little Rebellion, the woman’s now deceased husband continuously gave her money to put away in the last weeks of his life.
That money was stored inside an old couch that she slept on for 30 years.
The woman worked as a florist after her husband’s death but soon had to go to a rehabilitation center for several months after undergoing surgery on her back.
Her doctor told her daughter and son-in-law that she could no longer sleep on the couch and would need a full-size bed.
The couple gave the couch to New Paltz’s Salvation Army, where the three housemates bought it for $20.
Werkhoven, Russo and Guasti knew they had done the right thing and the woman rewarded each of them $1,000 for such a fine display of character.
via The Little Rebellion
