Recluse’s Hidden Treasure Up for Auction
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File photo. (iStockphoto/Thinkstock)(CARSON CITY, Nev.) — The final haul of gold coins found stashed in a dead recluse’s home is set to hit the auction block in Nevada.
Walter Samaszko Jr., 69, died in May of heart problems, but his death was not uncovered until June, when neighbors complained of a bad smell coming from his house. When authorities went to clean out Samaszko’s house, they found boxes of gold coins and bullion inside the home and in the garage, Carson City Clerk Alan Grover told ABC News.
At an auction in February, gold bullion found in Samaszko’s home sold for $3.5 million, said Grover.
More than 2,600 gold coins, divided into six lots, are on the auction block today at the Carson City courthouse, and could fetch as much as $3 million, according to Grover’s estimates.
Samaszko had no will and no immediate relatives. He was cremated and his remains were flown to Chicago, where his mother, who died in 1992, is buried.
Using the funeral attendance list from Samaszko’s mother’s funeral, Grover tracked down Arlene Magdanz, Samaszko’s first cousin in San Rafael, Calif., who is set to inherit any profits from the sale.
Grover said Samaszko lived in a small, 1970s three-bedroom home of about 1,200 square feet with orange shag carpeting.
“There were no antiques, no crystal or family jewelry or anything like that,” Grover said. “You would never have suspected the guy would have that much. … He certainly didn’t live that way.”
Grover said the coins were in boxes marked “books.”
There were also coins wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in ammunition boxes. There were Mexican, British and Austrian coins dating as far back as the 1870s, he said.
There was so much gold that Grover said he had to use a wheelbarrow to carry the fortune to his truck.
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