She Never Expected The Surprise Inside A $3 Goodwill Bag And The Impact It Would Have

There’s no telling what you might find when visiting a thrift store. While most of the merchandise is simply other people’s used clothes, every now and then, a person stumbles upon something special. One thrift store shopper had no idea what she was in for when she bought a $3 bag. What would happen next was truly something remarkable.

Reselling used clothing is a BIG business

Thrift stores like Goodwill can be fantastic places for finding used clothing and home goods at rock bottom prices. There’s no telling what sort of designer items are hidden among the racks of clothes and just waiting to be picked up. According to Forbes, the resale business of clothing is a $24 billion industry and Sarah Thomas is one of those folks who are all about finding and reselling great thrift store finds.

Clothing donations are always coming in

One of the things that Sarah liked best about her local Goodwill store was that donations were almost constantly flowing in.  Goodwill receives 100 percent of its merchandise from donations and provides jobs for members of the community both in its stores and through smaller resale business offshoots. As Sarah was about to find out, sometimes what you find while thrift store shopping more than meets the eye. 

Bargain hunting like a pro yields a unique find

Being a smart bargain shopper is a skill. You’ve got to know what’s a good find at a good price and what’s better left on the rack. Oregon mother Sarah Thomas knows her way around a thrift store and regularly hits up her local Goodwill several times a week in search of a diamond in the rough. It was on one fateful trip in 2017 though, that Sarah would come across a find unlike any other. 

Could a designer diaper bag be holding a secret?

On one of her routine Goodwill shopping trips, Sarah came across a designer Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag that was in excellent condition. It was gently used and even better, it was only $3. Score! Sarah knew that it would make a perfect item for her reselling business, Sarah’s Southern Oregon 2nd Hand Deals. It was upon returning to her car, however, that Sarah noticed something unusual about this diaper bag. Something was off that she hadn’t noticed in the store. 

A designer bag is hiding something

Sarah was enough of an experienced thrift store shopper that she knew her $3 diaper bag retailed for around $200 brand new. This made the find all that much more appealing to her. Unlike every other bag in the store, though, she could feel that this bag had something inside it. Sarah looked inside, but was surprised by what she saw…

Something heavy was shaking around inside this bag

Sarah looked inside the bag and didn’t see anything. It was strange because she could feel by the weight of the bag that something was most certainly inside of it. “I was cleaning it and just noticed something heavy shaking around in there,” she told the local news station. It could have been anything… illegal drugs, jewels, historical artifacts, who knows!

Sarah spots a strange hole inside the bag

Sarah quickly realized that the object inside the bag was actually hidden inside the bag’s lining. This instantly made her even more curious about what it could be! After looking closer, Sarah saw that there was a small hole in the bag’s lining and something silver inside was catching the light’s reflection.

Curiosity takes over. What’s in the bag?!

Whatever was in the bag’s lining definitely, wasn’t part of the diaper bag’s original design. Sarah reached behind the bag’s lining and pulled out the heavy object that had been the source of this mystery. It was a small blue Sony camera. Something like this was definitely a bargain bonus, but the mystery for Sarah had really only just begun.