Mattress stuffed with $1 million missing in landfill

Looking for Mom's $1 million mattress

TEL AVIV, Israel — Why are banks safer places for your money than a mattress?

Your money is insured in the bank. In a mattress, it's assured it will eventually wind up in a landfill.

That's just what happened to a mattress belonging to a Tel Aviv mom, after her daughter unwittingly swapped out an old flea-bitten mattress to surprise her mom with a new Serta Perfect.

What the daughter didn't know is that, for years, Mom had used her mattress to stow away American dollars (even as they dropped in value) and Israeli shekels -- a life's savings worth more than $1 million.

Talk about throwing away a fortune.

Garbage haulers took the old mattress to the dump during a regularly scheduled pickup.

The panicked daughter, about to be estranged, has since been scouring the local landfill, without success. Some 2,500 tons of trash arrives daily. Three garbage truck rides to three different dumps have been futile.

And word's getting out. A municipal worker photographed the daughter-about-to-be-grounded-for-life (if she lives) sifting through smelly rubble and sold the prints to a newspaper.

Some people stuff mattresses, others sell photos of people searching for stuffed mattresses.

Not a "Material Girl," Mom says "fugedaboudit."

"It happens," Mom says.

Daughter knows she's doomed if she doesn't find the family savings.
 

Use the keywords below to search for related news.