Cash couch: US woman finds $36,000 stuffed in free sofa

Photo: IC

A California woman found $36,000 stuffed in the cushions of a free couch she snagged on Craigslist — and gave the money right back.

Vicky Umodu needed to furnish her new home cheaply and could not believe her luck when she found a sofa set being given away. "I just moved in, and I don't have anything in my house," she told ABC7 from her home in Colton, near Los Angeles this week.

"I was so excited, so we picked it up and brought it in." But it turned out there was a whole lot more to the giveaway that met the eye.

The lump she found inside one of the cushions turned out to be several envelopes filled with cash — thousands of dollars' worth. "I was just telling my son, come, come, come! I was screaming. This is money! I need to call the guy." Umodu called the people who had given her the couch, told them of the bonanza, and returned the cash.