OWOSSO, MI — A mid-Michigan man found more than $43,000 in cash hidden in a couch he bought from a secondhand store, and though he had no apparent legal obligation to do so, he decided to return the money to the family who donated the item.
Ovid resident Howard Kirby recently bought a set of furniture for $70 from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Owosso. After the couch spent a few weeks in his “man cave,” he started to think something was off.
“The foot cushion always seemed kind of hard,” Kirby said Friday, Jan. 17.
His daughter-in-law finally opened the cushion and was surprised to find a box containing tens of thousands of dollars in cash - $43,170, once they counted it up.
Surprised at his good fortune, Kirby considered how the cash could change his life: He could finish paying his house off and fix his roof and still have some left over. He contacted a lawyer and learned he had the legal right to keep the cash.
But Kirby felt his faith called him to do the right thing and try to return the money to the family who donated the couch.
“The Holy Spirit just came over me and said, ‘No, that’s really not yours,’” Kirby said.
Kirby went back to the store, which got in contact with the family, he said. They arranged a meeting in the store for Kirby to return the family’s lost money, but Restore manager Rick Merling said initially it wasn’t clear how much cash was involved.
“We didn’t tell them what had happened because we didn’t know exactly,” Merling said.
Kirby then surprised the family with the hidden cash, which had been stashed in the furniture of their recently-passed grandfather.
The feel-good find was very close to going up in flames: The store was swamped with furniture at the time, and ReStore and other resale shops were hesitant to take the grandfather’s set because of its age, Merling said. The family told Merling and Kirby they planned on burning it if they could not find a taker.
Kirby said he had questioned his whole life whether he’d do the right thing in a situation like this. He’s glad this happened so he knows now that he, in fact, would. He had no intention of getting attention for the deed, but he hopes it might help other people do the right thing as well.
“It belonged to them, and I’m glad I was able to give it back to them,” Kirby said. “As a born-again Christian, I want to do what Christ would want me to do, and I think that’s what he would want me to do.”