Recycle That Old VCR? Sure. But Then He Learned That Mom Had Been Keeping a Big Secret.

If you have a secret place where you stash your valuables, you might want to tell your family about it — before they accidentally discard it.

A Shoreline, Washington family got quite the scare when they recycled an old VCR, only to later find out what had been inside the machine.

"We were just going through our house, seeing what's old and what we can get rid of to clean up the house," Tony Hwang told KOMO-TV. "Kind of like spring cleaning, but in the summer."

After the VCR had been carted off to the recycling center, Hwang's mother returned home, saw that the machine was missing and made a stunning revelation: she had stashed more than $6,000 inside the VCR.

The family rushed to the recycling center Monday morning to begin a frantic search.

"She was waiting at front of the warehouse with her daughter at 5 a.m. She wanted to go through (on) her own, in all of the trucks, find the VCR," said Michael Szanyi, owner of 1 Green Planet, the recycling place that had hauled away the VCR. "I promised her, 'Don't worry, I will find it for you.'"

As often happens in these sorts of situations, the VCR was in the last place they looked — the sixth and final bin of junk.

"That was, I think, the last VCR in the bin, and he's like, 'Here!'" said employee Jose Sanchez. "Imagine moving microwaves. Big things. We felt good she found her money."

Tony Hwang holds the VCR. (Image source: screengrab via KOMO-TV)

Hwang said the family would probably get a safe to store their savings in the future.

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