Story Archive

Probably Threw Out His Baseball Cards, Too

Victor Gichun, the vice president of Clean Bay Area in Milpitas, Calif., remembers a woman donating two boxes to the Silicon Valley electronic recycling center just before closing for the weekend. She had told him that her husband died awhile ago, and “She said, ‘I want to get rid of this stuff and clean up my garage’,” Gichun remembers. “I said, ‘Do you need a tax receipt?’ and she said, ‘No, I don’t need anything’,” and left, so he didn’t get her name. It took weeks to get to her boxes, and when he did, he found an Apple I computer, one of only about 200 hand-built by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Ginchun quickly found a buyer for the much-sought-after collector’s item — the collector paid $200,000 for it. Company policy is to split such windfalls with the donor, so Ginchun is looking for the woman. “We are looking for her to give her $100,000,” he says. Without knowing her name, how will Ginchun be able to weed out any fraudsters hoping to cash in? “I remember her,” Gichun says. “To prove who she is, I just need to look at her.” (RC/San Jose Mercury News) ...Look up Laurene Powell’s picture and see if there’s a match.