Students Return USD40K They Found Inside A Used Couch To 91-Year-Old Widow
In our weekly FEEL GOOD FRIDAY column, we present the story of three friends in New York who found USD40,000 (RM12,9220) in a second-hand couch they had bought, then tracked down its 91-year-old owner and returned the entire cash to her. Yay!
By Sadho Ram — 16 May 2014, 02:41 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
Imagine you and two of your friends find a small fortune of cash inside a crummy old couch you bought for cheap at a second-hand shop. What would you do?
Roommates Reese Werkhoven, Cally Guasti and Lara Russo, pictured, bought a smelly secondhand couch, seen above, from a charity store for $20 they had no clue about its real value
Image via dailymail.co.ukWould you trace the money back to its owner, or would you keep it to spend on your heart’s deepest desires?
nydailynews.comIt's an ethical dilemma straight from the textbooks. And a SUNY New Paltz student and two friends (pictured above) dealt with this dilemma first hand recently.
thelittlerebellion.comReese Werkhoven, Cally Guasti and Lara Russo were getting cozy on their new couch for the first time, when Werkhoven ruffled himself a plastic envelope from under the couch’s patchy arm
“I almost peed,” Werkhoven said. Inside the envelope was a wad of twenties that added up to $700. “The most money I’d ever found in a couch was like fifty cents. Honestly, I’d be ecstatic to find just $5 in a couch.”
The group then began a thorough excavation, maneuvering the couch in all directions so that every linty crevice could be probed to find more money
New Paltz graduate Lara Russo, Werkhoven and Mount Holyoke College graduate Cally Guasti are seen with the couch that had $40,000 inside of it.
Image via wordpress.com“Just when we thought we pulled out the last envelope we’d find another $1,000 a few minutes later,” said Guasti.
7online.com
Twenty minutes after sitting on an old musky couch, the three college students were now miraculously standing on USD40,000 in cash
Reese Werkhoven, left, and Lara Russo count money they found stuffed in their couch. The two and fellow roommate Cally Guasti, not pictured, found $40,000 in a couch they bought from a thrift store.
Image via nbcnewyork.comFor a while, there were no notes, no names, or anything else that could have told them who the money belonged to. For all they knew the money was fair game.
thelittlerebellion.comThen there was a game changer. Russo found a woman’s name on one of the envelopes.
“We had a lot of moral discussions about the money,” Russo said. “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.”
nydailynews.comEach of them called their parents for advice; their parents basically told them all the same thing: Don’t spend the money. Don’t tell anyone about the money. Find the woman from the envelope. Find out if it’s her money.
nbcnewyork.com
Questions came into focus. What if the money belonged to a homicidal drug dealer? What if it was all counterfeit? What if the person who owned the money was dead? Who should they trust to give it in their name? What if the person is just a really bad person?
thelittlerebellion.comRusso pondered the last question on the phone with her mother. “My mom said that I have a good moral compass, and if I don’t think that someone is a good person, or deserving of the money, then I’m not obligated to give it to them. This really threw me off. Where do you draw the line? It’s all very subjective.”
The possibilities were endless and the group seemingly discussed them all that night. Though they weren't banking on it, there was still a chance they'd be able to keep some or all of the money.
Lara Russo, left, Cally Guasti, center, and Reese Werkhoven sit on a couch in their apartment in New Paltz, N.Y. on Thursday, May 15, 2014
Image via bellinghamherald.com“I would have bought my mom a new car,” Werkhoven said; “what she drives is a piece of junk and I really wanted to surprise her with a brand new car.” Other items high on the wish lists: paying back student loans and traveling the world.
thelittlerebellion.comThe next morning Russo and Guasti were at work, Werkhoven was at class and all of them had a huge secret they couldn’t share with anyone. Then around 11 a.m. Werkhoven’s mom called and told him that she found the woman’s name in the phone book. After work Werkhoven gave the woman a call.
theguardian.com
He asked the woman her name and told her he had just bought a couch from Salvation Army. She immediately replied “oh, I left a lot of money in that couch.” Werkhoven promised her that he and his housemates would be able to return the money at any time, but he was a little taken aback by her shortness with him on the phone.
dailymail.co.ukIn the late afternoon, Werkhoven, Guasti and Russo were in the car headed to the 91-year-old widow's house
“About halfway to her house we stopped the car and had a serious discussion…what if she’s a really bad person? What can we do at this point if we meet her and decide we don’t want to give her the money?” Not having a plan of exit, they rolled up the long driveway past three “beware of dog” signs and several mounted cameras.
thelittlerebellion.comIt was a rustic home in a rough neighborhood. The porch was grey and chipping paint. The front door creaked open slowly, Werkhoven remembered. “I think the part of this whole experience that cleared away my prior thoughts and worries was when I saw the woman’s daughter and granddaughter greet us at the door.” Werkhoven said. “I could just tell right away that these were nice people.”
nydailynews.com“When we handed the money back to the woman, she told us that she felt like her husband was present in the room with us,” Guasti said. "This was her life savings and she actually said something really beautiful like 'this is my husband looking down on me and this was supposed to happen,'" Guasti further said.
dailymail.co.ukIn an interview, the widow, who gave USD1,000 to Guasti, Russo and Werkhoven as a reward for returning the USD40,000, explained how her money was lost
Her husband had had a heart condition and knew his time was limited. Before he died, he gave her money each week to put away for when he passed. For 30 years she stored her savings inside an old couch in the television room where she slept.
bellinghamherald.comWhen her husband passed away, she remained working as a florist and continued to store her money in the couch, until she had an operation on her back and went to a rehabilitation center for several months.
independent.ie
The couch ended up at the Salvation Army store in New Paltz and was bought for $20 by three genuinely good young people who had the strength and wherewithal to make a commendable moral decision.
thelittlerebellion.com