SAN FRANCISCO (AFP).- A Silicon Valley recycling company on Monday was searching for a woman who dropped off a rare Apple computer subsequently snapped up by a collector for $200,000.

The woman didn't leave her name or ask for a receipt when she dropped off a box of unwanted gadgets, including a first-generation Apple I computer considered a coveted collectable by computer history buffs, according to US media reports.

Workers at the Clean Bay Area recycling specialty firm in Silicon Valley said the woman stopped by in April and told of being on a mission to get rid of clutter from her house after the death of her husband.

A couple of weeks later workers went through the box and found an Apple I, the first generation of hand-built computers created by Steve Wozniak when the world-changing company and its renowned co-founder Steve Jobs operated out of a family garage in 1976.

Only about 200 of the first-generation desktop computers were put together by the company co-founded by Jobs, Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.

An executive from the recycling firm said he remembers the woman, who stopped by in a sport utility vehicle, and that the company's policy of splitting proceeds evenly with the donors of items has him on a mission to find her.



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