More than $100,000 in cash was found inside an old television that was being processed at a recycling plant in Barrie, Ont., and police say the money was a man’s lost inheritance.

Scroll down or click here to vote in our poll of the day

The shocking discovery was made in January by an employee, who uncovered a cash box inside the TV as it was dismantled. The recycling company then contacted police.

“There was like, four stacks of $50 bills, and I knew it was a large amount of money,” Rick Deschamps, general manager for GEEP told CTV Barrie.

Inside the cash box were documents that helped lead police to the money’s rightful owner: a 68-year-old man from Bolsover, Ont.

When investigators spoke with the man, he told them that he stored the money inside the television about 30 years ago. The plan was to pass along the money to family members as an inheritance.

That is, until he forgot about the cash and gave the TV to a family friend.

The recycling company has praised the employee for her honesty.

“She’s representative of all our employees and it’s what we stand for and this kind of behaviour is really what we would expect from everyone here,” said Lew Coffin, GEEP vice president of operations.

Now that the owner has his money back, police offered him a word of advice.

“Hopefully he’s put it in a savings account now,” Barrie Police Const. Nicole Rodgers said.

With a report from CTV Barrie