CLEVELAND – A lucky family in Ohio was able to get their $ 25,000 back after accidentally throwing it out with the trash – thanks to the swift actions of their local waste management team.

On July 28, Gary Capan, operations supervisor at Republic Services, received a frantic phone call from a woman in Lorain County, Ohio, who said she lost something important in the trash.

It turns out that that big thing was her grandmother’s $ 25,000.

Capan said the family put food in the freezer and in order to make room, a family member threw away the bag with the money.

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“Grandma said to me, ‘Hey, there’s an envelope with $ 25,000 in there, don’t lose that’, and she said, ‘Grandma, I already lost that, this ‘is in the trash “,” according to Capan.

Capan and his team immediately got to work searching for what was essentially a needle in a haystack.

According to Republic Services, trucks dump 4,500 tons of trash into the county landfill six days a week.

But luckily for the family, the driver of the truck collecting their garbage had not yet dropped off his load for the day at the landfill, according to Capan.

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Capan coordinated with the driver and instead of asking him to drop off the garbage at the landfill, he took the garbage to the local recycling center.

After the garbage was thrown out, Capan said “everyone was on the bridge to find the money.”

Capan, along with Dan Schoewe, the recycling center’s operations manager, and 10 other workers rummaged through the trash together until one of the crew managed to find the discreet bag containing thousands of dollars. cash.

The money was returned safe and sound to the family.

This is not the first time that the services of the Republic have to dig through the garbage to find valuables that people have accidentally lost. Over the years, crew members have been able to collect jewelry, live checks and more cash and return the items safely to their rightful owners.

“Quick action and incredible teamwork resulted in a happy ending for the Lorain County family,” said Schoewe.