A recycling center in Silicon Valley, US, is looking for an unknown woman who disposed of a unique specimen there: Of one of the first Apple personal computers worth $200,000.
The woman stumbled upon the computer while cleaning the house after her husband’s death and passed several boxes of electronic devices to the CleanBayArea recycling center in Milpitas, California.
One of the findings she unearthed in a garage was Apple 1 – a unique device released in 1976, limited to the amount of 200 copies. It is one of the first PC models created by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and only a few dozen of them exist nowadays.
“The body was made out of wood. I’ve never seen anything like that. My first reaction was it was a fake. Then we started looking at it,” said Victor Gichun, vice president of marketing for CleanBayArea, as quoted by Reuters.
Apple 1 was one of the first such devices sold as setup models. Jobs and Wozniak sold their computers for $666.66 apiece.
The computer donated by an unknown woman was sold to one of the private collections. Now the recycling center is looking for her and is ready to pay her $100,000, which is half of the proceeds from the sale. The company’s policy states the income should be split 50-50 with the person who disposed of the sold device.