Money returned after wife accidentally throws away $23K

EUREKA, California (KTRK) -- An Oregon man's life savings almost ended up in a landfill.

A man says he almost lost more than $22,000 when his wife started to do some summer cleaning.

Officials say the man's wife accidentally tossed out a shoe box filled with cash last Thursday. She never looked inside it.

When the husband realized the shoe box was gone, the recycling bin had already been emptied into a truck bound for the Recology sorting facility in Humboldt County.

The facility's general manager told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat most of the recyclables from the truck had been sorted by the time the man contacted Recology. Workers were nonetheless told to be on the lookout for the box.

Someone spotted the box down the sorting line Friday and recovered all but $60. The money somehow stayed in the box during the 200-mile trip to the facility.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.