Susie Armstrong of Worth Township, Mercer County, didn't realize her late husband had stashed $5,520 in a shoe to help pay for his funeral, and she donated the shoe to a thrift store. A volunteer discovered the money and the store tracked Armstrong down to return it.

GROVE CITY — Treasures are discovered all the time in thrift store donations, but volunteers at the All Good Things Thrift Shoppe never expected to find $5,520 hidden in a donated shoe.

“We’ve found a dollar here or there, or a quarter, but nothing like that. It shocked everybody,” said Debbie Kochems, owner and manager of the store on Main Street.

Last week, an older woman donated to the store three bags of clothes that belonged to her late husband, who died last month.

On Sept. 19, a volunteer at the store, the Rev. Jerry Mahaffey, pulled a wad of $100 bills from the shoe.

“I remembered the woman, but did not know her name,” Kochems said.

The woman, Susie Armstrong of Worth Township, Mercer County, was eventually reached, following broadcasts on a Youngstown, Ohio, television station. The money had been hidden by her late husband, Delmar Armstrong, to help pay for his funeral costs.

“I had no idea whatsoever (that the money was in the shoe),” Armstrong, 80, said.

Discovering the money solved a long-standing family mystery.

Armstrong said she knew her husband kept money somewhere, but for years she did not know where. She first discovered it while cleaning in 1985, and it was in a shoebox. But she stopped keeping track of the extra money in the early 1990s.

Armstrong later found out her husband had moved the money to a pocket in a suit in a closet. Later, he moved it again, but she did not know where.

Before she donated the items last week, she thought she cleaned all of the shoes, she said.

“Fortunately, it was found by honest people,” Armstrong said.

She learned about the discovered money on Monday. She was going to claim it on Tuesday, but she had errands to do, so she went to collect it on Wednesday.

To claim the money, she called Kochems, who verified that Armstrong was the one who brought in the shoe. Among the items Armstrong donated was a television, which the store does not normally receive. That was how Armstrong was identified.

Because she already paid for her husband’s funeral, she said the money will go for a new roof on her house.

All Good Things, which opened in February, has donated more than $28,000 to charities, including the humane society and volunteer fire departments.

Armstrong gave the store $550, a “tithe,” as a gift for the money’s safe return.