It was a typical day in the Sudz City laundromat in Millbury Tuesday, when owner David Delaney found a surprise inside one of his customer's loads of laundry.
"I go to the dryer and I opened it and some strange amount of money fell out," Delaney said.
As caught on surveillance video, there's so much cash that it's falling out into the basket and even onto the floor.
"At first I thought it was just going to be 10, 20, 30 dollars," said Delaney, "but it ended up being well over 500 dollars!"
In fact, $530 dollars in all, in crinkled up — but very clean — five, 10 and 20 dollar bills.
"It was like mounds of money," Delaney said.
He immediately texted the Sutton woman who had dropped off the laundry the night before.
Local
In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston Area.
She's been a regular at Sudz City since her washer and dryer broke a few months ago and she couldn't afford new ones.
"And she said, 'Oh my God!' She said, 'I can't imagine what I left in the laundry,'" Delaney recalled.
The mother of six told NBC10 Boston what happened, but didn't want to give her name because she's a little embarrassed.
She was out school shopping with her kids when she got the text, rushing over to Sudz City, where Delaney handed her the now-laundered money.
"We were looking for it and we couldn't find it and he called us a day later, so we were just ecstatic," she said.
The woman said she and her husband saved up the cash for special occasions like vacations, birthdays and Christmas.
It had been left in a pair of shorts that weren't meant to be washed and dried.
"I tried to give him some money back and he would not take it," she said, adding that she's "just super appreciative. Yeah, made me cry."
Delaney, a father of five himself, was brought to tears too, just being able to help out another family.
"As much as I can have an impact on my community, that's all," he said.
This laundromat is definitely a labor of love for Delaney and his customers appreciate everything he does for them.
He's helped out people who couldn't afford to get their laundry done, he collects food for a food pantry and even gave kids backpacks for school this week.
The Telegram and Gazette first reported the story.
