In Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, $1,500 in US dollar banknotes were accidentally dumped in the trash. Thanks to impressive civil services and a stroke of luck, the cash was retrieved and returned to its owner, according to Andong City Government on Monday.

It all started with an urgent call to Andong City Hall at around 1 p.m. Friday.

The call was from a citizen who reported accidentally discarding the US dollar bills, meant for upcoming overseas travel, with their trash. Upon realizing the mistake, the owner rushed to the trash center to retrieve it, only to find it gone. It had already been collected by the garbage truck.

The news alerted Kim Joo-wan of the city's resource management team, who swiftly tracked the status of the garbage collected from the caller’s location.

Upon discovering that the garbage truck was still on its way, he headed to the waste facility at the end of the truck's route with several city officials and workers from the garbage service firm.

After approximately an hour of searching through heaps of rubbish from the 2-ton garbage truck, they managed to locate the trash bag containing the US dollars. The cash was then returned to the owner who had also come out to the trash site.

The resident expressed deep gratitude to Kim and the other workers, stating that they would have had to give up on their travel plans if the cash had not been found.