The couch was purchased by the friends from a Salvation Army store in February. The Little Rebellion claims that after watching a movie, the students reported feeling crinkles in two integrated side pillows on the couch.

It had these bubble wrap envelopes, just like two or three of them, said Werkhoven, a geology major at SUNY New Paltz, to CBS News. We tore them out and were completely terrified when we saw an inch and a half of $100 bills.

In their confusion over what they had learned, the friends came dangerously close to tearing the couch apart. Once all the packages were opened, they quickly counted the cash while documenting the process with photos. Unbelievably, the total was $41,000!

‘You keep counting more and more money and you get excited, like Reese was thinking about buying a car for his mom and a boat,’ Russo, a SUNY graduate, said.

However, when they noticed that one of the envelopes bore a woman’s name, the students’ joy was replaced by moral ambiguity.

“When I discovered that notice with her name on it, the entitlement vanished very quickly.” Because we didn’t earn that money,’ said Guasti, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College.

The parents of the students assisted them in their search for the true owner of the fortune. In order to prevent theft, the parents also instructed their kids to keep the stash a secret from others.

Finally, Werkhoven’s mother located the woman in a phone book, and the boy dialed her number.

Then I say, “I found a couch,” and she responds, “Oh my God, I left a lot of money in that couch,” said Werkhoven. “I’m like, “I found something that I think is yours,” and she’s like, “What?!”

Friends of the elderly woman, who requested anonymity, claimed that she disclosed to them that her dying husband had given her a sizable sum of money so that she would have money after his passing.

She hid it under the old couch in her room because she had nowhere else to put it. She claimed to have stored her savings in the couch for thirty years. She recently underwent back surgery and spent a few months in a rehabilitation facility.

Her doctors advised her children to buy her a new couch while she was still there to help with her back pain. The Salvation Army experienced it in that manner.

According to Russo, “We almost didn’t pick that couch.”The only couch that had the correct dimensions for our living room was pretty ugly and smells.

The three individuals claimed they didn’t feel bad about doing the right thing and that they would even go out to dinner with the elderly woman and her family after returning the money to her.

Werkhoven said to CBS News, “I think it’s just that anyone can do good if they will themselves to it.”

“I believe everything went as it should, and to be honest, I don’t really think about it that much,”Added Russo.

However, the good Samaritans did not depart empty-handed. The woman shared $1,000 as a gift among the three kids!

If you were offered $20 for this couch, would you still act in the same manner?

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