Disabled Man Survived On $200/Month. Sees Blanket On 'Antiques Roadshow,' Now He's Millionaire

May 29, 2019 by apost team

Loren Krytzer had a successful career working as a freelance carpenter before a  car accident required the amputation of his foot. His doctors even told him that he had five years to live. 

Even though he was dealing with various medical complications and an amputated foot, Loren was denied medical disability many times. Since he couldn’t work, he ended up sending his kids to Louisiana to live with their grandparents. 

Disability finally came through for him a short while after. However, he was still living on just $200 a month after covering his rent. His girlfriend Lisa was living with him and helping with the bills, but her help was still only just about getting them by. 

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Loren was reaching his breaking point. It was then when he watched an episode of Antiques Roadshow. On that particular episode, an older man was shocked when he found out that he had a First Phase Navajo blanket that was valued at about $500,000.

Loren couldn’t believe it. He had inherited a blanket that looked just like the one he saw on the show. It was sitting in his closet after he took it when his grandmother died. 

“I paused it and I went and got the blanket and I’m sitting there holding it. … I’m lining up the lines on the TV with the blanket, seeing if they match,” Krytzer told CNBC make it. “This guy is on TV, the appraiser says $300,000 to $500,000,” he recalls, so “I’m thinking maybe this one is worth $5 to $10 grand.”

The funny part of the story is that neither his sister nor his mother had wanted the blanket. So Loren took it home and set it in his closet. It stayed there, out of sight, for seven years. 

He figured the blanket could at least be worth $5,000 to $10,000. However, his own mother said that it was probably barely worth $10. Loren knew that he had to find out for himself just how much that old blanket was really worth. 

The first few vendors he took it to told him that it was barely worth anything. Then he took it to a family auction company known as John Moran Auctioneers. Jeff Moran tested the blanket and found out that it was an extremely rare Navajo chief blanket. 

Six months later, the blanket went up for auction. Within 77-seconds, it sold for $1.5 million. Loren went home with $1.3 million. Loren met with Moran’s accountant and learned how to manage his money. He is thrilled to be able to afford the things he has always wanted. 

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