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Daughter throws away mattress stuffed with mother's $1m life savings
Security guards posted at landfill sites in Tel Aviv to keep treasure hunters away
Maev Kennedy guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 10 June 2009 16.16 BST
With the collapse of the world's banking system, an Israeli woman's decision to keep her life savings in her mattress must have seemed like a wise one. But it came back to haunt her when her daughter threw the mattress out – along with $1m (£611,000) stuffed into the lining.
Security guards have been placed on landfill sites in Tel Aviv to keep treasure hunters away, as word spread in Israel of what must be the worst exchange since Aladdin's battered old magic lantern was swapped for a shiny new one. The daughter, identified only as Anat, generously bought her mother a new mattress on Sunday, and got rid of the old one.
Anat, who did not want to reveal her full name, told Israeli radio that she had wanted to surprise her mother. She was shattered wto learn that her mother had banked all her savings in that most traditional of hiding places. She immediately rushed off to retrieve the mattress – only to discover the rubbish had already been collected.
The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot published a picture of the distraught daughter searching through a landfill site, having already tried the three other dumps where rubbish from her neighbourhood could have been taken.
The dump manager, Yitzhak Borba, said that his staff were helping her because she appeared "totally desperate", but the task was complicated by 2,500 tons of new rubbish arriving every day.
The woman nobly said it could be worse: "People have to take everything in proportion and thank God for the good and the bad."