Elderly bloke horrified after realising the couch he had donated had $30,000 stuffed inside

A Queensland retiree has made a grave mistake after he donated his couch, which had $30,000 (£23,162) stashed inside.

The elderly man is kicking himself after accidentally giving away his life savings during the donation.

George, going by a pseudonym, told 7News he was renovating his home and needed to desperately get rid of some furniture.

However, it came at a cost - and a huge one at that.

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The retiree didn’t realise his error until a few weeks after dropping it off.

“I think the bit that really hurts is that I’ve done this to myself, and I can’t believe how bloody stupid I was, honestly,” he said.

“I really did have to stop and say, ‘You’re human, you made a mistake. If you don’t repeat it, you’ve learned a valuable lesson – and an expensive one’."

Unfortunately, he hasn’t managed to track down the piece of furniture as it was sold on within days.

The Queensland native said it's hard to locate its whereabouts, as someone came to pick it up instead of having it delivered to their home.

Still, George launched an online campaign to find the couch and his life savings.

He's even offered a reward to the person who returns his treasure.

It’s not a $30,000 reward, no doubt.

Gillian Vann/Getty Images

The retiree still hopes the new owner might do the responsible thing and ultimately return the money.

“If I get a portion back, I’ll be happy, but I think it’s gone,” he said. “There are a lot of people in dire need. Maybe it’ll transform someone’s life.”

Speaking of losing a huge sum of money, a teenage girl blew her family’s life savings on mobile games earlier this year by spending around $97,000 (£51,000).

That’s a hell of a lot of in-game purchases, and it completely cleaned out her poor mother’s bank account after she got hold of the debit card details.

The young girl reportedly tried to hide what she’d done from her mum, deleting chats and transaction histories.

Obviously, the lack of money soon became apparent, and her mum found out anyway.

The 13-year-old spent all the cash in the family savings account without her parents’ knowledge.

Gong Yiwang – the mother in question - went to check the bank account shortly after her child’s splurge and found she only had seven cents to her name.

That has to be up there with on of the worst feelings in the world.