Sweater donated to Goodwill was hiding $42,000 in cash, Oklahoma worker says
It was just a normal day at work for Andrea Lessing, sorting donations at a Norman, Oklahoma, Goodwill.
“You want to make sure there’s good product, there’s no stains, there’s no holes, there’s no tears, there’s no rips,” Lessing told KFOR.
While examining donations earlier this month, she found a couple sweaters tangled together and what she thought were books caught between them, according to the outlet.
It turned out to be thousands of dollars in cash. A cool $42,000, to be exact.
“There was just stacks of just envelopes and it just contained $100 bills,” Lessing told KFOR. “My first thought was — it’s fake.”
She let her supervisor know about her discovery and store officials soon learned that other documentation was wrapped up with the cash, Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma wrote in a Facebook post.
The team was able to track down the owners, who’d accidentally donated the cash along with the clothing.
Lessing said doing the right thing was the only option.
“I know what could be risked stealing that money and I do believe in karma,” Lessing told KFOR. “I do believe that if you do something good, something good will come back to you.”
And it wasn’t long before Lessing got her due. As a thank you for returning the cash, the owners gave Lessing $1,000.
“I never expected anything like this to happen to me, of all people,” Lessing said. “To me it was just another normal day at work. I was in the back sorting. I never expected to come across $42,000. I made the right decision, and I did the right thing.”
Lessing said she plans to use some of the money to make her 6-year-old daughter’s birthday special.
“I just want to say thank you because (the owner) was a blessing,” Lessing told Fox News. “I thought I blessed him, but he turned right around and blessed me. He restored my faith that there are really good people out there even through this pandemic. We don’t know their situation so it’s better to just be kind.”
A representative for Goodwill told Fox News it’s among the largest cash finds ever reported at a Goodwill store, and the largest found at a Central Oklahoma Goodwill location.
Jim Priest, CEO of Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma, commended Lessing for turning over the cash.
“Andrea showed integrity when she turned in the money and Goodwill showed its integrity as an organization by tracing the donors so we could return the money,” he told Fox News. “Andrea could have kept the money and Goodwill could have kept the money, but integrity is doing the right thing and it’s a core value we strive to live out every day.”
Norman is just south of Oklahoma City.
