A woman from Elmira, New York got herself into trouble when she accidentally sold a ceramic turtle containing her husband's previous wife's ashes.

Anita Lewis started taking items out of the house before her husband woke up to participate in the large rummage sale on Saturday. Since her house was full of ceramic turtles collected by her husband's late wife, Marcia Lewis, she selected a large brown one out to be sold.

In the meanwhile, a woman came by and bought the turtle from Lewis to use it as a cookie jar without opening the lid. Lewis sold Marcia's ashes for 50 cents and wasn't even aware of the mistake.

However, after remembering about the ashes Lewis began a frantic search for the buyer. After an anonymous caller's tipped the local newspaper the Star-Gazette of Elmira, Lewis's search finally came to an end and the item was recovered in the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in the town of Horsehead, N.Y.