More than $100,000 has been returned to its grateful owner after the cash was found tucked in an old television at a Barrie recycling centre.
An employee at GEEP Industries on John St. was dismantling the TV last month and found a cash box and banking records dating back to 1985.
The employee handed over the money and documents to the General Manager who called the police.
Officers were able to trace the banking documents to a 68-year old man from Bolsover who had simply forgotten he had placed the cash in the TV for safekeeping.
How did he forget about $100,000?
"He's a small business owner and back then he was in a position where he was gifted the money. It was an inheritance," said Barrie Police Const. Nicole Rodgers.
"His take on it? That's how he grew up. Because he had a business he kept his business money somewhere and then because this was an inheritance, he thought 'I'll put it somewhere safe' and then just continued on with his life."
Years later the man gave the TV away to a family friend in Barrie.
"And never correlated them as 'Oh this was the TV I put the money in' because he never had a need for it," Rodgers said.
The family friend, unaware of the hidden treasure in the TV, had the set for a couple of years before dropping it off at GEEP to be stripped and disposed of.
Detectives initially approached the owner on the pretext of confirming the rightful owner of the legal documents, all the while confirming his identity in a bid to return his money.
"We're glad we were able to track down enough information to feel confident to give it back to him because sometimes that's what hard is trying to figure out the legitimacy of something like that," Rodgers explained.
"I'm pretty sure they were quite grateful to have it returned."
"It was given to him to use for rainy day was actually what he said when he was interviewed," said Rodgers. "There was no reason for having it so it was something he just misplaced in his mind where he had put it and thought it was somewhere safe and it had already been passed on to the junk yard."
In a press release, police wrote 'In reality, the day the money was returned was probably more of a snowy day.'
Officers say the honesty of the employees of GEEP must be commended and praised.
And that is exactly what the company has done in a news release.
"GEEP commends the honest actions of our employees and staff and are happy to hear the money has been returned to its original owner," the company stated.
The release went on to say while other reports have noted the TV had been waiting in the recycling yard for over a year, GEEP says all materials to be recycled are typically dismantled and recycled within a 2 to 30-day window of arriving at the facility.
