Most people put their life savings in the bank for safe keeping.

One man, however, put his in a shoebox. On Thursday, he came dangerously close to losing it all when he accidentally tossed the box — including all US$23,000 of its contents — into a recycling bin.

By the time the Oregon-based man realized his grave mistake, the recycling had already been collected by a truck heading to Recology in Humboldt County for sorting.

He contacted the facility, but odds were definitely against him, despite workers being asked to keep an eye out for the precious cargo.

“We take quite a bit of material every day so the odds of finding that are not much better than a needle in a haystack,” Linda Wise, general manger of the Samoa Resource Recovery Center, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Lo and behold, eventually a Recology employee spotted the box on Friday morning, which miraculously still had all its contents save US$320.

“It only toppled out of the box once it got onto the sorting line,” Brian Sollom, operations manager for three of the facilities, told the publication.

Wise got to be the bearer of incredible news by calling the man, who made the five-hour trip to claim his money.

While it’s unsure what happened to the remaining $300, it likely doesn’t seem so important now compared to losing it all.

—With files from The Associated Press

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