A trip to the thrift store to buy some linens ended in a big surprise for a Delta police officer - and one local family.
Last month, Sgt. Jody Waldron purchased a set of sheets from the Delta Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store in Ladner. The sheets were new, she said, and still in the original packaging, although it had been opened.
Later, when Waldron went to wash the sheets, she got a little more than she paid for - an envelope full of cash. In all, there was $1,300 in the envelope, all in older $50 and $20 bills.
Waldron said it was an old government-issued envelope that also contained some paperwork, but did not include a name or address. A member of the department's sex assault unit, Waldron said she took the envelope to work and handed it off to the fraud department in an attempt to track down the owner of the sheets.
Although the original owner had died, the officers were able to find her granddaughter.
Barbara Chant said the envelope belonged to her grandmother, Connie Buttrick, who died in 2002.
Chant said her mother must have found the sheets when cleaning out Buttrick's apartment after her death. In turn, Chant came across the sheets recently as she cleaned out her mother's house. Her mother has moved into a care home. Chant said she donated the sheets, along with several other items, to the thrift store about a month ago.
"We never even looked," she said.
The news of the money came as a big surprise.
"My grandmother was not a wealthy woman," Chant said.
Buttrick immigrated to Canada from England in 1957 and spent her life working as a housekeeper.
She did, however, have a habit of tucking money away. Chant said after she died the family found the odd $20 bill slipped into a book, but never anything more than that.
"We really appreciate all the trouble the police went to track us down."
Chant said the money has been put in the bank for safe keeping until the family decides what to do with it.
