Same here.

Mattress is definitely not the safest place to hide money, what about a fire or flood? It's not just the good natured daughter you have to worry about. I keep several thousand dollars in a fire safe box instead.
(I'm on the run)

@SupremeCourtNominee_GitEmSteveDave: @Coles_Law: I appreciate the work-friendly shenanigans!

@MostlyHarmless: Work friendly because it doesn't require sound. My floor is a deathly silent place. And headphones are not an option.

@tedyc03: Shekels are availible in bills, so she might have had the larger NIS200 notes. My first thought was $100 bills, though, since they are not only easy to get in Israel (at just about any bank branch) but were also preferred back when Israel's currency was very volatile. People in Russia and Eastern Europe used to have a fondness for $100 bills, and a lot of older Israelis are from that part of the world, so it may have been the woman's standard investment practice.

Also, a lot of people outside of the U.S. don't use mattresses with springs. If this was a foam type mattress, she could have been replacing the foam with bills.

"We imagine it's the one where the rats are all wearing tiny gold rings and toasting each other with little glasses of champagne."

Super cute!

When my stepmother died, I went to the house, looked under her mattress (above the box springs), and found 45 bucks. Gave it to dad. (To clarify, they had separate beds).

When dad died, I looked under the mattress and under the bed as well. Found nearly $250 - amazingly, all of it coins.

But I never thought to look INSIDE the mattresses. Damn!

Realistically, if she was shoving bills in the mattress in wads of various amounts, it would be heavier due to a larger quantity of bills. But if it's not obvious where the slits to shove the bills are, the mattress could quite easily be thrown away, filled with money.

We'll see how this turns out I suppose...

@morlo: It certainly is ideal. Just ask Ranier Wolfcastle.

like a poster pointed out, had this woman been hit by a bus or just died a natural death that mattress would have been thrown out.

So get your grands or parents to "trust" banks and document those collectables and tell you about accounts and MAKE A WILL.

I am sure they are actually investigating that angle, but I though it odd that it hasn't been mentioned.

@tedyc03: I suspect that the old woman (a) has some issues regarding security/money, and possibly anxiety as well and (b) does not have any solid idea how much money was in that mattress. She's probably comforted herself for years by thinking that there's about a million dollars in there; there's no telling how much it really was, although I am guessing that after years of hoarding it could've been quite a lot.

@pecan 3.14159265: Especially really old matresses are heavier than new ones.. All that crud (Skin, dust, dustmites, you know.. crud) adds weight to a matress over the years... I'd just think it was an old crappy matress, which it probably was.

The sounds of hundreds/thousands of coins slapping together into a jingling waterfall when she lefted/turned it might have been a clue.

Have any of the trash workers recently quit?!?!?

@Trai_Dep: Huh?

No one has mentioned this yet, but there's a good chance that a neighbor or needy person took the mattress if it was still in relatively good shape. It could be in the neighborhood, under her nose the entire time while they search the dump. I'm sure - I hope - she's considered this possibility.

Spongebob? Try Threes Company.

@Where The Mild Things Are: Ha! As long as you found it. Otherwise it would just be a lot of trudging around in soiled diapers.

@thebluepill: Er. What?

@jessi5000: Seriously. O_o

If it's really $1 million, it's kind of stupid to tell the dump employees what you're looking for. They probably found it on the first try and are buying vacation homes with cash.

@allnitecp: "Yes, he was a scumbag, but guess what?"

The the hell, dude. Madoff is a scumbag -- you even admit it yourself -- and yet ... you are defending him? Why? Were you his boyfriend?

I prefer to skip the matress alltogether and sleep on "a big pile of money with many beautiful ladies."

But we don't need banks. Banks are evil!

@U-235: UGH! I am so tired of the Madoff haters out there. Yes, he was a scumbag, but guess what? There are thousands of more like him out there doing the same thing everyday.

What I still don't seem to understand is why people don't see that most of these people would have lost the same amount in the latest "Market Adjustment" if they had just invested it in the Stock Market like everyone else.

I guess it's all about having a face to go with your lack of good financial judgement.

Or is it because it was a video, which by nature tends to announce "hello everyone! i am goofing off!"?

It's understandable that the daughter wouldn't suspect any increased weight...a queen sized mattress is extremely heavy, money or no money. Unless you haul mattresses every week, you're not going to know precisely how much a mattress should weigh.

@SupremeCourtNominee_GitEmSteveDave: Nice. Now work-friendly shenanigans!

@Ally Hill: Then they'd have to marry a horse or something. I mean, you did say Fox...

@AcceleratedDragon: I still think they should let the shafted investors beat him like a pinata to see if their money comes out.

@HogwartsAlum: Why is my code name worm bait?

(Mostly I'm just bitter and jealous because I think it would be super fun to hunt in a dump for a million-dollar mattress....)

And to think, during the banking crisis she was probably all like, "Yeah, panic fools...my nut is safe and sound."

Of course, this could be a brilliant prank to get hundreds of people walking around in garbage chasing nothing.

Damn, you beat me!

I love that episode. :)

@LegoMan322: It sounds like she didn't want a new matterss, her daughter did the swap for her as a surprise.

The woman saves up another million dollars and tucks it away in her mattress, the daughter decides that the mattress is too lumpy and uncomfortable for her mother and throws it out, the mother saves up another million in the new mattress, the daughter can't believe how uncomfortable her mother's mattress is . . .

It's a never ending cycle.

I hope she has fun looking for her money. That is complete incompetence.

Anyone wants to check my math: [wiki.answers.com]

There was a Spongebob episode just like this. I hope the giant guard worm doesn't hurt anyone.