A Washington woman's son accidentally sent her life savings to the recycling plant, after not realizing it was tucked in the door of her VCR.
The woman, whose identity was withheld, stashed the $6,000 away in a sack in the opening of an old video cassette recorder. Her son Tony Hwang then recycled the old appliance at a local high school event, not knowing the money was inside. The VCR had been resting on a ledge in the Hwang's living room since the family's grandmother handed down the keepsake to other members of the family several years ago.
"We were just going through our house, seeing what's old and what we can get rid of to clean up the house," Hwang told KOMO. "Kind of like spring cleaning, but in the summer. She was just looking for the VCR. She was really sad, so that's when we knew it was something more than just a VCR. We (went to the recycling place) on Monday morning to make sure they weren't working really early, extra hard."
"She was waiting at front of the warehouse with her daughter at 5 a.m. She wanted to go through (on) her own, in all of the trucks, find the VCR," added Michael Szanyi, owner of Green Planet, the company that mistakenly wheeled away the precious antique. "I promised her, 'Don't worry, I will find it for you." Szanyi followed through on his promise using the woman's vague description.
"The only thing she said was, It's a black and old VCR. She was telling me she got it from her mom and it was very important for her," explained Szanyi. "I have my mom in Hungary, and I thought it's going to be good Karma."
"That was, I think, the last VCR in the bin, and he's like, 'here!" recalled Green Planet employee Jose Sanchez who helped Szanyi find the woman's VCR. "Imagine moving microwaves. Big things. We felt good she found her money."
