Man found £80k in £30 desk he bought at auction – then did something incredible

A MAN found £80,000 hidden inside a £30 desk he bought at an auction – then he did something incredible.

Phil LeClerc stumbled across the incredible find after purchasing a Governor Winthrop secretary desk at an auction in Boston, USA.

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The Governor Winthrop secretary desk is known for its hidden compartments, which Phil looked through in search of a missing part.

Instead, he found a stack of $127,000 (£80k) in mature savings bonds from an obscure narrow slot.

“I banged the desk forward and when the knob came out the envelope dropped,” Phil said.

“The first thing I saw was a $500 bond.

“We [then] found 50s, and then we found 100s, 200s, 500s, and then we found a stack of six $10,000 bonds.”

This incredible story took an even more amazing turn when Phil returned the desk and the money to the auction house in the hope of returning the bonds to the rightful owner.

And he did. Better yet, the owner was in desperate need of cash to fund his 94-year-old father’s care.

The money couldn’t have come at a better time for the man, who had put up his dad’s house for sale to cover the expenses.

“The family had been looking for them for years,” said Kelley, from Kelley Auctions house.

“He was so happy. It could not have happened to a nicer guy,” Kelley said about the man who had hired the auction company.

“We love stories like this. It’s why we do what we do.”

And Phil was happy the bonds were returned to their rightful owner.

“It was a great find,” he said. “It was even better after hearing the story of the family.”

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