California recycling company finds big discovery

Milpitas, Calif. — This story will make you want to take a closer look at what is in your garage.

A woman dropped off a box of old stuff to a California recycling company, what she didn’t realize is that it included a very valuable computer, now the company is trying to find her.

This Milpitas recycling company made the surprising discovery, “It was like you know, like you won the lottery.”

Last month, a woman dropped off several boxes of what she thought was junk, “She brought like, two or three boxes like you can see on table with some stuff like wires, cables, keyboards, old stereo, something like that.” but inside one of those boxes was a vintage apple 1 desktop, one of only 200 first generation models created in 1976.

Here is one is on display at the computer history museum in Mountain View.

After some research, Clean Bay Area sold the apple 1 to a private collector for $200,000, they’re now looking for the original owner, who didn’t leave a name. “I said, ‘do you need a pick up receipt or do you need a tax receipt’ she said, ‘no, no Im fine, just want to clean up garage.'”

The company wants to honor its policy by giving her half the proceeds from the sale.

Her husband passed away recently and I don’t know her financial situation, but I think it can really help her.” the recycling company says all she needs to do is come down and pick up her check.