The out-of-work carpenter,Loren, was down on his luck, having been in a car accident, living in a tiny home, and with little money to his name. Then, his grandmother passed away, and all that was left to him was one of her old blankets. Oddly enough, that blanket was about to change Loren’s entire life. He discovered the true value of a family heirloom, and it changed his life in ways he never thought possible. His story is one of those that will inspire anyone who feels trapped in a difficult situation.
According to Loren, it all started with an unexpected inheritance. Loren inherited a Navajo blanket and another from his great-grandmother. While his sister chose the Hudson’s Bay blanket, Loren’s grandmother’s Navajo blanket was left on the floor. he told CNBC he asked his sister: ‘What are you going to do with that?’ She said, ‘I don’t want that dirty old thing?’ Loren picked it up and stored it in his closet for seven years. Then one day, watching television he saw a similar blanket appraised on Antiques Roadshow. That’s when he realized the actual value of the family heirloom. He now knew it had a value, but Loren faced challenges finding the right place to sell it.
The first antique dealers he approached turned him away, while others dismissed the heirloom as a run-of-the-mill Mexican blanket. Fortunately, Loren was pointed toward John Moran Auctioneers, a local family-run auction company with a reputation for selling Native American artifacts. Loren found an ad online for their open appraisal day and made the 30-minute drive to their office. He put the blanket in front of auctioneer John Moran which became the most expensive item ever sold at auction by Moran’s company. The blanket from the 1800s was worth $1.5 million, and just 77 seconds after entering the auction room, Loren walked out an instant millionaire. But the sudden influx of wealth was overwhelming, and Krytzer felt the need to escape from it all. He spent five days alone in a hotel room to decompress and face his new reality.
He says he received numerous phone calls from distant relatives requesting a share of the money, causing him to suffer from frequent anxiety attacks. His sister even threatened to sue him before eventually backing down. However, Loren was determined to make the most of his newfound wealth. Moran paid their CPA for four hours to sit down with Loren to help him understand how to make his money work for him. He used some of the $1.3 million he received at the auction to purchase a Harley Davidson, but the rest was wisely invested in stocks and municipal bonds. While he faced many challenges, his perseverance and eventual discovery of the blanket’s value allowed him to turn his life around. Krytzer earned $1.3 million for a Navajo blanket that was once used as a catch-cloth for a litter of kittens, after accounting for the auction fees.
