New York College Students Find $40K in Couch, Return Money to Owner

An upstate New York man who found $40 thousand in a couch returned the money to the couch's owner.

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When three SUNY New Paltz college students found $40,000 cash stuffed inside an ugly thrift-store couch, they decided to find the owner and return the funds. The couch was originally purchased from the Salvation Army for $20 and sat in their apartment for months before the discovery, reports WABC-TV. Then one day, they decided to figure out why the sofa was so lumpy. 

"There's a zipper on the bottom, and he pulled out a bag, and we said it's either drugs or money, and we freak out and it's a stack of hundreds and fifties," one of the roommates, Lara Russo, told WABC.

While most people probably would have kept the money, the three roommates unanamously decided to give it back. "It wasn't a debate, we immediately reached a consensus that this is her money," student Reese Werkhoven said.

As it turns out, the money wasn't the result of some past drug deal or criminal activity, but hidden there by a 91-year-old widow who didn't trust the banks to keep it safe. While she's lucky such honest individuals wound up with the furniture, a Credit Union may have been the better choice. Not gonna lie, this wouldn't have been as easy a decision for me. 

For their trouble, the woman gave them a $1,000 reward. 

[via WABC-TV]

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