MEDINA, Ohio — A Medina woman gets quite the surprise when a lost gift is found.

And she has a city worker who was determined to do the right thing to thank.

It was a usual work day for Josh Kerns until the Medina sanitation worker saw something unusual thrown out in the trash.

“Grab the can and as I dumped it, I noticed something purple standing with a bunch of white. And, as we went to the next stop, I kept looking at it. It didn’t look right and I noticed the name Lucy,” Kerns said.

Before the trash got compacted, Kerns took the purple envelope out of the truck.

“Something that’s not open sitting there, something told me to grab it. So, I just grabbed it.”

The envelope stayed unopened until Kerns finished the route. Then he and his co-workers were surprised at what they found inside: $50.

Without a second thought, Kerns knew he had to try to find the rightful owner, much to Lucy Hamer’s surprise.

“I asked ‘are you Lucy?’ She’s like ‘that has my name on it’, and I just said ‘Happy Birthday’,” Kerns said.

“I just thought it was great that they went above and beyond to come back out and find me and make sure that he gives me the card back because it had money in it,” Hamer said.

Hamer didn’t even know about the birthday card from her sister-in-law. It had been put in with a gift for her son. That box was thrown in the trash without anyone knowing the envelope was inside.

Bob Depew, assistant foreman at the Medina Service Department, believes this was all fate.

“Somebody directed Josh’s hand to that envelope. That’s just my personal feeling. That was meant to get Josh to get it back to the people,” he said.

Hamer said it is good that there are still honest people in the world. And, this birthday gift returned from the trash is sure to be treasured for a long time.