Woman Accidentally Discards Son's Surgery Money
Sanitation Workers Search Through Trash for 8 Hours
"Tears of Gratitude for Their Kindness"
A heartwarming story has emerged about sanitation workers who helped a woman in her 60s recover 26 million won she mistakenly threw away, thinking it was trash. They found the cash after sifting through tens of tons (t) of garbage for about eight hours.
According to Sejong City on the 5th, around 10 a.m. on the 24th of last month, Kang Hyun-gyu, an official from the Resource Circulation Division of Sejong City Hall, received a call from a woman in her 60s, Ms. A, who lives in an apartment in Sejong City.
In a desperate voice, Ms. A said she had mistakenly thrown away 26 million won intended for her son's hospital bills into an automatic waste collection facility (Clean Net). Waste thrown into the Clean Net is transported to a waste collection site and then landfilled.
Official Kang immediately contacted the waste collection site and ordered an immediate halt to waste removal.
Ms. A rushed to the waste collection site but, upon seeing the neatly compressed garbage piled inside a 24-ton container box, was about to give up on finding the money.
However, upon hearing it was for her son's surgery, the sanitation workers decided to search through the garbage pile. They moved the container filled with trash to a wide open space, dumped the garbage out, and began searching through it piece by piece.
The Clean Net’s powerful suction had torn most of the garbage bags to shreds. The contents inside the bags were scattered everywhere.
During the search, one sanitation worker shouted that he had found a 50,000 won bill, and another found several 10,000 won bills. Over eight hours of work, the sanitation workers recovered 18.28 million won in 50,000 and 10,000 won bills from the garbage pile. However, the remaining cash could not be found as it was mixed with other trash.
The story of Sejong City’s sanitation workers became known after Ms. A posted a thank-you message on the city’s website. In her message, she wrote, "Seeing the enormous amount of trash, I thought it was impossible to find the money and had given up, but the staff said they would try to find it." She added, "I was so grateful and touched to tears as the staff carefully searched for each bill hidden deep in the trash." She also said, "They didn’t even accept my small token of appreciation and instead apologized for not being able to find all the money," and concluded by expressing her gratitude to the Sejong City employees.
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