A man picked up a free filing cabinet from Facebook Marketplace only to find hundreds of dollars hidden inside when he got home.
Steven, 24, lives in California, and recently got a second-hand filing cabinet to store his art supplies, after his mother came across a listing giving out free household items online.
“It was one of those ‘everything is free, everything must go’ kind of listings,” he explained to Newsweek. And so, after arriving at the house after a long drive, he and his mom picked up a few things, with Steven opting for a filing cabinet to store art supplies.
“Initially, I was hesitant to get it because I wasn’t sure where to put it, but I took it because the lady there told me it is free,” he said. “So I just put it in my mom’s van and came back home and moved it in my garage.”
But, as he shared to Reddit‘s r/ThriftStoreHauls on May 21 via his account u/5teverino_5nake, the cabinet wasn’t as empty as he had first assumed—because when he went to store sketchbooks inside, he discovered hidden tins on the upper shelf, with $521 contained within.
Steven shared photographs on his Reddit post showing the filing cabinet and what was hidden inside, including a handwritten note he believes to mean the quantity of the money and the dates they were hidden.
He told Newsweek he has attempted to contact the seller but has so far not heard back from her. But Reddit users were quick to respond to the post, awarding it close to 6,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments, many sharing their own stories.
“My great grandmother had money stashed everywhere. When she passed, my grandmother kept finding money hidden all around the house,” one user commented, another agreeing: “my grandmother was the same.”
Another joked: “This makes the seven pennies I found in a 99c piggy bank look like a booger,” while another called the situation “crazy. I know where my last $2 are at all times. I can’t imagine misplacing or forgetting about $500.”
Reddit u/5teverino_5nake
Some commenters urged Steven to return the money right away, while others told him it was now his to do with what he wants, with Steven calling the response to his post “mixed,” and admitting he’s now feeling bad about the find as some commenters are calling him a “bad person for making the post and thinking I’m gonna keep it.”
“I feel bad that I unintentionally caused an uproar in the post/comments,” he said. “I intend to reach her so I can give it back.”
As he’s unable to drive there in person, Steven is waiting to see if he hears back from the seller online before considering his next options.
The global secondhand market is huge worldwide, with people buying from thrift stores and online markets on the rise. In 2025, the global market value of secondhand and resale apparel was estimated to be worth $256 billion, according to data from Statista.
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