Nevada Loner Leaves $7.4 million (€5.6M) in Gold to Distant Cousin

A man in Carson City, Nevada, a mystery to his neighbors who describe him as a loner, dies, living a distant relative a fortune.

According to the Vibe, Walter Samaszko Jr. never revealed to them that he was literally standing on a pot of gold. Following his death this summer, a cleaning crew that was hired to tidy up his home encountered gold coins amounting to $7.4 million (€5.6 million) in the residence.

The coins were hidden in ammunition boxes. It took a wheelbarrow to transport them, Batangas Today informs. The public administrator of the estate, city clerk Alan Glover, managed their relocation.

He clarifies that Samaszko had gathered gold coins from not only the States, but also Austria, Mexico and many other countries.

“There was every kind of coin you could think of,” he says.

Asked what prompted the millionaire to gather a fortune in coins, Glover explains he “was not a coin collector. He was a gold investor.”

Only $1,200 (€906) were found in his bank account; however, he was also the holder of a money market and mutual fund, in which he put in $165,000 (€124,600). Samaszko's house, which was spread on 1,200 square feet (111.5 square meters), has been sold for $112,000 (€84,500).

Since the deceased man never left a will, police struggled to locate the rightful heir to his million-dollar treasure. Going through old archives, they managed to recover a funeral document drawn up as long ago as the 1960s.

The documentation identified a distant cousin, by the name of Arlene Magdanz, as his only living relative. Magdanz was not exactly a stranger to Samaszko; however, she had not seen or talked to him in over a year, and had no knowledge of his passing.