N.Y. Grandma Accidentally Mails $800 — and Cash Is Returned Days Later in 'Christmas Miracle'
A woman who accidentally dropped $800 in cash into a mail drop-off bin is breathing a sigh of relief after the money made its way back to her.
Marcia Bukowski of Depew, New York, was mailing a bundle of Christmas greeting cards on the weekend of Dec. 13 when she mistakenly mailed an envelope containing $800 in $50 bills that was meant to be her mortgage payment, according to WKBW.
The grandmother inserted a note into the U.S. Postal Service box, hoping to catch the attention of a mail carrier who serviced the receptacle. She even stood by the bin at 7:30 a.m. hoping to catch a USPS worker to ask for help, but to no avail.
Bukowski told the outlet that she eventually contacted a USPS representative who told her the envelope likely was picked up and put into a pile of undeliverable mail to be sorted later. "They have three thousand non-mail related items that they have to go through," she said.
"I just have to hope that someone out there is honest enough, like me, that they'll be able to get that money back to me," she told the outlet at the time.
RELATED: Grandma Who Survived COVID-19 Delivers 800 Handmade Tamales to Health Care Workers in L.A.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Days later, however, the WKBW news team went back to Bukowski's house to update her on the impact of her story, explaining that viewers offered to pay back the $800 she lost — but as it turned out, just as the cameras were on Bukowski, the grandmother was surprised when her cash was given back to her from a mailperson.
Bukowski's happy moment was captured on-camera days after she told the news outlet that her financials were "getting really tight now" amid the pandemic.
"They got my money! Oh my God, I gotta open it! I gotta open it!" she shouts excitedly in the clip from her kitchen as reporter Jeddy Johnson cheered with her.
WKBW/YouTube
RELATED VIDEO: Man Who Lost Leg in Accident Accomplishes Dream of Running a 5K: 'A Very Fulfilling Moment'
RELATED: New York Man, 58, Spends Over 10 Hours Trapped Inside Car with No Heat After Snowplow Buries Him
All the money was there, and Bukowski celebrated by calling family and friends to update them on the "Christmas miracle."
"Alicia, it's my envelope with my $800 in it! I have it!" she tells one person on the phone, as the woman is heard reacting, "Shut the heck up!" on the other end of the line. "I'm so serious!"
"I did not plan any of this I swear to God. I've never seen that postal lady," Bukowski told the reporters of the coincidental moment. "What a relief, what a relief. You know what, a Christmas miracle did happen. Honest to God it did. This is a true miracle."
Solve the daily Crossword
