Staff at a charity shop in Batford had a huge surprise when they found thousands of pounds stuffed in a sofa that had been donated to them.

Andy Browne, who works at Emmaus, was given the job of checking over the sofa bed that was given to the charity by a kind resident at the end of last year.

When he was unfolding the bed he found a drawstring bag full of £50 notes inside the mechanism, making £9,000 in total.

He said: "The bed had never been used. It was in perfect condition so we put it on the shop floor.

"The bag just fell out. I threw it over my shoulder and thought I would look at it later.

"It wasn’t until about two hours later that I remembered and had a look.

"There are a variety of things that could have happened but they didn’t. It was just fate.

The sofa had been picked up by a delivery team so staff at the shop had no idea who the owner was.

It was originally destined for the St Albans branch of Emmaus but its size meant that it had to be moved to the specialist furniture store in Lower Luton Road.

Mr Browne said: "With that kind of money we thought it must be somebody’s deposit if they were moving house or it was an elderly person and it was their life savings.

"We decided to phone the police and let them deal with it."

The police were able to track down the owner and return the cash in January.

The grateful residents offered the charity £500 as a thank you for being honest and returning the money.

Emmaus Communities offer homeless people a home, work and the chance to rebuild their lives in a supportive environment.

The St Albans community is one of 22 in UK.

The Batford furniture store takes donations of old furniture that are restored and sold on.