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“This is a unique situation where this large quantity of money was missing without anyone knowing it was missing,” Const. Nicole Rodgers said. “He hadn’t even realized with the police officers sitting in his house that they were speaking of the cash box with his money in it.

“In his mind, he thought it was still somewhere else in his house.”

When a GEEP employee removed the back of the television, the cash box holding the bills was immediately visible, Coffin said. The money was counted — although it was so old, a cash counting machine couldn’t do the job — and kept in a safe until police arrived to collect it the following week.

Because the television was given to them, there was no requirement for the plant’s employees to turn the money inside over to the police.

“The whole company brand is built on security and integrity,” said Coffin, who added GEEP has found smaller cash amounts hidden within stereos, speakers and computers they recycle.

“If it comes to GEEP, we’ll return it.”

Though the accompanying banking records gave police a clear indication of where the money could be traced, they first had to rule out that it was acquired in bank robbery, researching major incidents in Southern Ontario in the mid-1980s. When a robbery was ruled out, Barrie police still had to confirm with the RCMP that the bills were not counterfeit.

Police tracked the man down using the address listed on the banking documents. In more than 30 years, he hadn’t moved from his home in Bolsover, according to locals. His family also still owned a business.

When police revealed the lost cash was his, he was “relieved and ecstatic,” Rodgers said.

Despite the man’s shoddy memory, Rodgers understands how he could’ve forgotten his “special hiding spot.”

“It wasn’t like he was hazardous with his money … he probably thought it was under the mattress.”