LOS ANGELES — A woman in Los Angeles was looking to add a new rug to her apartment and lucked out when she found rolls and rolls of it in a dumpster.

Paige Thalia got the idea to visit the dumpsters before the Oscars even started.

She told CBS News that she was walking her dog a few nights before the awards show and saw them setting up.

“I just had an idea that maybe they need to get rid of the carpet at the end of the day,” Thalia said.

The inspiration for her treasure hunt stuck around for about 10 years. Thalia attended a taping of Kelly Ripa’s show at the Dolby Theatre, after an Oscar broadcast, during which the talk show host gave snippets of the carpet to audience members, The New York Times reported.

And she was right.

She found rolls of red carpet in a dumpster about a block from the Dolby Theatre, where the ceremony was held.

“I just asked the first person I made eye contact with, ‘Can I take a piece of that?’ She said, ‘Sure,’” Thalia told CBS News. “She probably thought I meant a very small memento.”

Thalia, who is a production assistant, uploaded videos to social media, with one getting more than 5 million views.

She also said that she’s getting requests for pieces of the red carpet to be given as gifts.

“Someone from ‘All the Empty Rooms’ reached out and he wanted a piece for himself,” Thalia told CBS News. “Then he also asked if I had some extra pieces. Pieces he could send to the director and some of the other teams, and I think of all the productions, that’s a pretty important one that I would love to share.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said that the red carpet is made of recycled materials and is recycled after the event. About 95% of the carpet was returned to the vendor, CBS News reported.

The owner of Event Carpet Pros, which supplied the carpet, said the rug was 50,000 square feet and a custom shade of red exclusive to the Oscars, the Times reported.

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