{"id":89906,"date":"2017-02-16T21:35:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T02:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=89906"},"modified":"2017-02-16T21:35:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T02:35:48","slug":"ontario-man-reunited-with-100k-stashed-inside-old-recycled-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/02\/16\/ontario-man-reunited-with-100k-stashed-inside-old-recycled-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario man reunited with $100K stashed inside old recycled TV"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"About<\/a>
About 30 years ago an Ontario man stuffed a wad of cash and banking documents inside a box, opened up the back of his television and hid the package inside. (Photo: valakirka\/Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About 30 years ago an Ontario man stuffed a wad of cash and banking documents inside a box, opened up the back of his television and hid the package inside.<\/p>\n

He then didn’t give it much thought until detectives came to his home near Peterborough, Ont., last month carrying the box and asking him if he knew what it contained.<\/p>\n

It turned out the 68-year-old had forgotten all about his secret stash\u2014amounting to $100,000 \u2014and had given his television to a friend who dropped it off to be recycled. The cash was only discovered when the set was recently dismantled at a depot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was quite surprised and excited that it was returned to him,\u201d said Const. Nicole Rodgers of Barrie police. \u201cI think it’s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police discovered that the man \u2014 whose name they did not release \u2014 thought he still had his stash squirrelled away at home, Rodgers said.<\/p>\n

Growing up, the man stored money around the house and it was a practice he continued throughout his life, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn’t use a lot of institutions or banks,\u201d she said. \u201cHe had put it in a really safe place and that place was inside the TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man told detectives the money came from an inheritance given to him by his parents, Rogers said. But after forgetting about the cash, he gave the television that held the stash to a friend a few years ago, Rodgers said.<\/p>\n

About a year ago, that friend recycled the television, which ended up at Global Electric Electronic Processing, a recycling plant in Barrie.<\/p>\n

On Friday Jan. 13, a woman working at the plant began dismantling the television, said GEEP’s vice president of operations Lew Coffin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all $50 bills,\u201d Coffin said. \u201cAnd that’s a big stack of $50 bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

The employee took the cash and banking documents found in the television to her supervisor, who conferred with the plant’s manager and police were called, Coffin said.<\/p>\n

Someone at the recycling plant’s finance office then counted the money and dropped it in a safe until police arrived a few days later.<\/p>\n

Telling police about the discovery was a no-brainer, Coffin added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the way the company operates and that’s the values of the company,\u201d he said, adding he is really proud of the employee who found the cash. \u201cWe were certainly appreciative and showered her with thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police discovered that the banking documents in the television dated to 1985 and included contact information, Rodgers said. And since the man hadn’t moved in more than three decades, investigators found him quickly.<\/p>\n

Police also asked the RCMP to see if the money was counterfeit or linked to a crime. The cash came back clean, Rodgers said. So they began talking to the 68-year-old man.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don’t call them up and say hey, ‘we have some money,\u201d’ Rodgers said. \u201cWe had detectives go out and speak to them in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police discovered that the man was a business owner, discovered when his parents retired and spent a month investigating the situation.<\/p>\n

Rodgers said the man and his family were \u201cecstatic\u201d when the cash was returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said the money will be in a safe place,\u201d Rodgers said, adding that she didn’t know if that meant inside their home or at a bank. \u201cI hope they learned their lesson \u2014 or at least make a note on the fridge where it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 30 years ago an Ontario man stuffed a wad of cash and banking documents inside a box, opened up …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":89907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18,16],"tags":[15357,15356],"class_list":["post-89906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-old-recycled-tv","tag-ontario-man","mauthors-liam-casey","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}