In this global economic meltdown, not even money stuffed in a mattress is safe.

On Monday, a woman in Israel accidentally threw out a mattress with $1 million hidden inside and has since been searching desperately at landfills to recover it. The woman, Anat, said in a radio interview that she purchased a new mattress as a surprise for her mother and tossed out the old one, before learning that her mother had hidden her entire life's savings inside.

Anat's searches at nearby dumps, where 2,500 tons of new garbage arrive each day, have so far turned up nothing. "People have to take everything in proportion, and thank God for the good and the bad," she said.

The shekel-filled mattress, apart from being worth $1 million, offered surprisingly good lumbar support.