More likely than not, the mattress contained $10-20K and a whole host of expired bankbooks and decades-old statments. My F-I-L is notorios for opening dozens of squirrel accts ($2500 here, $5000 there) and when they exprire, he moves them to another bank / broker.
Problem is, he keeps the old statment, and is fully convinced that he now has $15,000! (old statements plus the new ones) Do that x times over a 50 year span, and presto! You “left your kids a million $
Not to say that this mattress story couldn’t happen, but to scour the dump? Nah, I don’t think so.
For what its worth; much of the “family heirlooms / priceless diamonds we always heard about as kids turned out to have more sentimental vaule than commercial value. But the spin we used to hear from grandma? The Astors and Rockafellers did’nt possess this kind of riches!
Hopefully, Ms (or Mrs?) Annat has treasure chests full of memories she and momma can reflect on