If a woman who dropped off boxes of electronics at a South Bay recycling firm returns to the store, she will collect a $100,000 check. In early April, the unknown woman, who said her husband had just died, deposited a number of boxes at Clean Bay Area. One box contained a vintage Apple I, which Clean Bay Area found two weeks later and sold for $200,000 to a private collection. The woman did not obtain a receipt or tell the store her name.
Clean Bay Area Vice President Victor Gichun told the San Jose Mercury News that the company’s policy is to split the profits from its sales 50-50 with donors, and he is determined to find the unknown woman and give her the money, especially because his own mother died at 54 and his father suffered afterward. He said, “We are looking for her to give her $100,000///I remember her.”
Gichun recalled, “She said, ‘I want to get rid of this stuff and clean up my garage.’ I said, ‘Do you need a tax receipt?’ and she said, ‘No, I don’t need anything.’ ” He remembered that she drove an SUV, but he will not offer any other information publicly.
Gichun concluded, “To prove who she is, I just need to look at her.”
Roughly 200 Apple I’s , which were built by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne in 1976, currently exist. In May 2013, at an auction in Germany, one sold for $671,400.
Clean Bay Area produced a video that attempts to reach the unknown woman and alert her that the money is waiting for her.
Photo: File