12-year-old Max Becker is celebrating. He was reunited with his life savings, money that his mom accidentally threw away with a recycled computer.
"I was so upset, because it's like all my money," Max said. He had just returned from boy scout camp and instantly noticed the central-processing unit of his old computer was gone.
He had saved more than $300 in a coffee cup and in a wallet that also had a bunch of gift cards inside. The coffee cup and wallet were hidden inside the old computer tower.
The idea was to keep it hidden from a certain sister who he says has sticky hands. "I was hiding it from my sister Drew, I can't exactly trust her," Max said.
Max's mother Dorothy Ferrante started making phone calls and discovered it had been taken to the Sims recycling plant in Edison, New Jersey. "I felt terrible. How would we ever get it back?," said Ferrante.
She made some phone calls and ended up pleading for help from the computer recycling plant.
They were determined to help a Boy Scout find his money, but they had to dig through about 700 different computers. It took four days but they found it.
The worker who found it ran to plant manager Jimmy Coe. "He came running to me into my office, 'Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy...We found it! We found it! We found the kids money," said Coe. "We found it in the computer.' "
On Wednesday afternoon Max got his cash back and a tour of the plant. "Thank you," Max said. "Thank you so much."
We asked his twin sister Drew what she thought about it all and whether she was even a little happy for her brother.
"Is there a shopping trip for me in it?" Drew asked. Max's reply came quickly. "Not a chance," he said.
TXT 24
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