Rare Apple 1 vintage computer donated to Northern California recycling center

MILPITAS, Calif. -- This story is kind of like your mom tossing out your old comic books and baseball cards. A Northern California recycling company is looking for the woman who cleaned out her garage and dropped off an Apple 1 vintage computer worth $200,000.

A recycling company in Milpitas made the surprising discovery.

"It was like you know, like you won the lottery," said Victor Gichun with CleanBayArea.

Last month, a woman dropped off several boxes of what she thought was junk.

"She brought like two or three boxes, like you can see on the table, with some stuff like wires, keyboards, mice, old stereo, something like that," Gichun said.

But inside one of those boxes was a vintage Apple 1 desktop, one of only 200 first generation models created in 1976. One is on display right now at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

After some research, CleanBayArea sold the Apple 1 to a private collector for $200,000.

They're now looking for the original owner, who didn't leave a name.

"I said, 'Do you need a pick-up receipt or do you need a tax receipt?' She said, 'No, no I'm fine. Just want to clean up the garage,'" said Gichun.

The company wants to honor its policy by giving her half the proceeds from the sale.

"Her husband passed away recently," Gichun said. "And I don't know her financial situation, but I think that it can really help her."

The recycling company says all she needs to do is come down and pick up her check.