This Broke Man Sold His Grandma's Blanket Not Knowing It Would Make Him A Millionaire

facts first presents this broke man sold his grandma's blanket not knowing it would make him a millionaire before we get into the video though how about you blanket us with a little kindness by clicking that like button and also be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell that way you don't miss any of our future videos it is not uncommon for people to find themselves in trouble financially for some the financial issues are due to losing a job or spending money irresponsibly there are some who go through a tragedy which can put them into financial ruin and that's what happened to a man named Lauren Kreitzer he was in a serious automobile accident his injuries were so severe in fact he was unable to work or earn any income it didn't take long before he was struggling financially and was unable to support his family when his financial problems became too much for the family Lauren was forced to send his three children to stay with their grandparents until he could find a way to get back on his feet but one day he got a surprise that would change his life forever he never expected it to happen on a typical day while he was sitting in his living room simply watching television before his accident in 2007 Lauren actually had a pretty great career he was running his own company he worked as a self-employed contractor he made enough money to support his family and be comfortable financially when he was in the car accident though Lauren injured his foot and it seemed like a typical injury at first but later the wound refused to heal he spent a year in the hospital and as time went on Lauren's injuries became seriously infected as the infection got worse and refused to heal the doctors gave Lauren some devastating news they told him they would need to amputate his foot now for most people this news would be tough the tank for Lauren it was even more difficult he realized that without a foot his freelance career would come to an immediate halt the serious injury left him unemployed with no source of income since carpentry was his life and that was all he was good at it really left him with no options Lauren thought that losing his foot and his career was the worst thing that could have happened to him what he didn't know was that his problems had only begun although he had just gone through extreme trauma of losing his foot his application for disability benefits was denied even though he had experienced a traumatic injury his application was denied it wasn't long before his savings had run out when there was nothing left in his bank account Lauren had no choice but to send his children to live with his parents in Louisiana and this was when Lauren was at his lowest point not only did he lose his foot his savings and his career he was now losing his children as well his family Lauren was heartbroken when he had to say goodbye to his kids Lauren was struggling to get by and he got a letter that his disability benefits were finally approved and he saw sign of hope unfortunately the news was not as good as he hoped it would be his award letter stated that he would be getting 839 dollars per month he knew that that would never be enough to support a family of five his benefits would equal to just a bit over $200 per month which was barely enough to put just food on the table Lauren's children had to remain with his parents and a friend was willing to rent him a shack on a piece of property they owned just outside the city of palmdale which is outside of Los Angeles California and he was grateful for the help and his girlfriend Lisa who would eventually become his wife moved in with him the rent was $700 per month and this would leave Lauren just $100 for the rest of the month to live on not a lot of money Lisa was able to help out financially but it wasn't going to be enough money for him to bring his children home to live with him Lauren says that things were so bad he would go to Costco for dinner he'd buy a hot dog and a coke which only cost a dollar 50 he couldn't afford more than that for his me times were incredibly tough for Lauren and Lisa they did everything that they could to save money however they could not seem to get ahead fortunately the couple was able to afford a TV it was this TV that turned things around for Lauren and Lisa they were sitting in their rented Shack one day back in late 2011 and the couple was watching Antiques Roadshow on PBS when a certain item caught Lauren's eye there was a man named Ted from Tucson Arizona on the show he had with them an antique blanket to be appraised and the expert appraiser was a man named Don Elias he was the owner of a Native American art gallery and he collected First Nation artifacts while Lorene and Lisa watched the show they saw Ted discussing the blanket he mentioned that he didn't know too much about the blanket he believed that it had a Navajo origin Ted told the expert appraiser that he was given the bed cover by a relative who got it from Kit Carson Carson was a legendary frontiersman who died in 1868 the minute the expert appraiser saw the blanket he knew exactly what it was and he was happy to tell Ted he was actually the owner of an amazing and rare example of a first phase Navajo blanket when Ted heard that his blanket had historical significance he couldn't believe it he never expected to hear that he was even more thrilled when he was told the value of his blanket turned out that his modest-looking blanket was worth up to $500,000 well again Loren Elise are watching TV as they see this and they started to feel a bit of hope because Ted's blanket looked an awful lot like a blanket that he had just seen in his closet Lauren had inherited his blanket when he did he stored it away in a closet and didn't really think much about it after that when Lawrence saw that segment on television though he paused the TV and went into his closet he wanted to compare his blanket with the one that the expert appraiser claimed was worth between 300 and 500 thousand dollars when he got his blanket out he compared it to the one on the television the lines seemed to line up perfectly he was hopeful and thought that maybe his blanket would be worth even five thousand or ten thousand dollars he thought about how that amount of money could really help him with his situation Lauren was sure his blanket wasn't worth nearly as much as Ted's was Ted's blanket was owned by a famous frontiersman Lauren he got his blanket seven years earlier after his grandma died when she passed away he went to his grandmother's home to pick up some books that she had promised him in other than the books his grandmother really didn't have much most of her things had already been claimed by her mother and her sister when she picked up his book he noticed a bag in the corner that his sister and mother had overlooked inside the bag were two blankets that his great-grandmother had passed on to his grandmother when Lauren's sister saw the blanket she left it on the floor she thought that it was poor quality and she really didn't have any need for it when Lauren asked his sister what she was going to do with the blanket she told him she didn't want a dirty old rag well not wanting to leave something of his grandmother's behind he took the blanket home and stored it in his closet and in the closet it remains stored away and forgotten for seven years after seeing Ted's blanket on the Antiques Roadshow Lauren decided to take his blanket to an antique store in town he figured that if he could get just a few thousand dollars he could stop eating Costco hot dogs every day none of the local antique store owners were all that impressed with his blanket though they told him it was a typical Mexican blanket that really had no value at all Lauren was disappointed while few months later he drove a bit further to see an antique dealer about the blanket he was sure he could get something out of it this dealer told Lauren and Lisa to take the blanket to John Moran auctioneers in Monrovia California this auctioneer was known for dealing with Native American items not long after Lauren went to see the auctioneer they sat down with the son of the stores founder Jeff Moran Lauren told Jeff how their blanket ended up in his hands and he told them that his great-great grandfather John channeland was a Dakota tree in the 19th century he was the first owner of the blanket after looking at the blanket and hearing the story of when Lauren got it Jeff told him that if he brought the blanket to auction it could maybe get him up to $200,000 Lauren was thrilled he needed that kind of money Jeff told him that he can arrange for the blanket to be listed at the next event the auction house would be holding since Lauren was struggling financially he wasn't sure he can wait for the day of the auction though other dealers have been making him offers for the blanket and he was tempted to take them because he needed the money now well not long after somebody was kind and compassionate towards Lauren not something that's common in the antique trade Jeff knew how serious Lauren's financial situation was so he gave him a call he told him to meet him at a local Pizza Hut but Lauren got there Jeff told him that the auction was at a few weeks and if he was willing to wait he would give him $9,000 in cash now to tide him over until then he had to Laura dat envelope full of cash Lauren was stunned that Jeff would do something this nice for him he agreed to hold on to the blanket until the auction finally the June 2012 auction began in the bidding for the blanket started at 150 thousand dollars which was less than its value the bids continued to increase by 50 thousand dollars until the price got up to 1 million dollars what shocked Lauren and Lisa was that after 1 million dollars the price continued to rise the entire auction only took 77 seconds into the end the winning bid came in via telephone for 1.5 billion dollars what Lauren couldn't believe was that the winning bidder was Don Ellis the same man that Lauren had seen doing the appraisal that day on Antiques Roadshow after the auction fees Lauren made 1.3 million dollars unfortunately when his family heard about the payout they wanted some of it for themselves in fact his own sister threatened to sue him for some of the money fortunately she changed her mind about it Lauren and Lisa left behind the shack that they were living in and two houses one for them to live in and the other for rental income they also got his children back he did splurge a bit on a harley-davidson motorcycle and a 2012 dodge charger he was responsible also and he put some of the money into stocks and bonds when this broke man sold his grandma's old blanket he had no idea it'd make him a millionaire this blanket saved his life and the life of his family I guess you could call it a social security blanket subscribe for more you

Channel: Facts Verse

Views: 2,352,795

Rating: 4.8346863 out of 5

Keywords: antiques roadshow, old blanket, antiques roadshow highest value, facts verse, million dollar blanket, antiques roadshow million dollar blanket, 1.5 million dollar blanket

Id: -w3DWR84r6o

Length: 11min 45sec (705 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 09 2018