A mom racked up some good karma by recycling her son's old computer — good karma that came in handy after she found out her son had stashed $300 inside the old PC.

12 year-old Max had just returned from Boy Scout camp and instantly noticed the central-processing unit of his old computer was gone. "He started screaming that his CPU was missing. That's when we realized."

He had saved more than $300 to go to camp next year, hiding it inside his old computer so his sister wouldn't find it.

When they learned of the mishap, the facility that collects the used hardware from the New York landfill really wanted to solve the problem. "We were very happy with Max's mom that she went the distance to recycle, so we wanted to go the distance to try to help out."

But there were thousands of old computers to comb through.

(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from TODAY on NBC)