Report: Junk Hauler Finds $114k in Bonds in Discarded Furniture

A Medford resident thought an old chest in her home was an old piece of junk, but it turned out to have quite a treasure inside.

Leo Guarente and his crew from Junk Depot in Saugus had just finished loading up unwanted furniture at the Medford home and were breaking it all down to make room for their next job, acccording to a Channel 7 News report. Inside an old hope chest they found savings bonds from 1972, Guarente told WHDH.

"It was just a plain, white envelope. We opened it up, and it looked like thousand dollar bills but they were us savings bonds. They were 22,300 dollars worth of savings bonds," he said.

With interest, those bonds are now worth about $114,000, according to WHDH. Guarente legally could have kept them, but elected to give them back to the woman in a surprise, according to 7 News.

(See the full report with video)

"Just to see the expression on her face when she almost passed out. It's like hitting the lottery. It can change your life,” Guarente told the news station. "This is the craziest. We found confederate money, gold coins, some watches, and this tops it all.”