New York students find $40,000 hidden in couch

NEW YORK (KGO) -- Three college students were sitting on a windfall of money and didn't know it. They bought a couch from the Salvation Army, north of New York City. The couch had a few lumps in it. So the trio tried to get to rid of them and instead stumbled on the windfall.

"There's a zipper on the bottom and he pulled out a bag, and we said it's either drugs or money, and we freak out and it's a stack of hundreds and fifties," said Suny New Paltz student Lara Russo.

It added up to $40,000. A deposit slip in one of the envelopes led them to a 91-year-old widow, who stuffed the money in the couch because she didn't trust banks. Her children donated the couch while she was in the hospital. The students returned the money to the woman.