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California Substitute Teacher Inherits ‘Loner’ Cousin’s $7.4M Gold Coin Fortune

Dec. 18, 2012 10:15pm
California Substitute Teacher Arlene Magdanz Inherits Loner Cousins $7.4M Gold Coin Fortune

Credit: AP

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) –  Walter Samaszko Jr. was a loner whose death went largely unnoticed. That all changed when a crew sent to clean out his house found a fortune stashed away in the garage of his modest ranch-style home.

There were ammunition boxes stuffed with thousands of gold coins, from Austria, Mexico and the United States. There was enough gold to fill up two wheelbarrows — more than $7.4 million worth.

“There was every kind of coin you could think of,” said Alan Glover, the Carson City clerk and the public administrator of the estate who borrowed a neighbor’s wheelbarrow to haul the treasure out.

City officials searched through records to find an heir: a substitute teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area who a judge declared Tuesday was Samaszko’s lone surviving first cousin.

The decision means Arlene Magdanz of San Rafael, Calif., is a millionaire. She didn’t attend the hearing and, so far, has not said anything publicly about her newfound fortune.

Officials were able to track her down using a funeral bulletin at Samaszko’s home that led to his father’s service in Chicago in the early 1960s, and then newspaper clippings that listed survivors.

When a lawyer told her that her 69-year-old cousin’s estate was valued in the millions, officials said, she was surprised, just like everyone else, including his neighbors on their quiet street.

No one seemed to know him at all, even though he had lived in the house since the 1960s. His mother lived with him until her death in 1992. When he died, the house was generally well kept.

“I don’t think I saw him in the year I was out here,” said Curtis Hastings, who dropped mail into a slot in Samaszko’s garage. A woman who lived just two doors down said she didn’t know him.

Samaszko’s body was found in June after neighbors called authorities, though it was not clear what prompted them to do so. He had been dead of heart problems for at least a month, according to the coroner.

Officials don’t know what he did for a living. They also don’t know how he earned the money that was used to buy the gold.

There were meticulous records of the purchases, since at least 1964, leading Glover to suspect that the gold coins may have been mainly bought over the years by Samaszko’s mother.

His bank account stood at $1,200. He had a money market and mutual fund with a combined value of more than $165,000 when it was closed. His three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot house was sold for $112,000.

“He was not a coin collector,” Glover said. “He was a gold investor.”

While the coins themselves were “nothing spectacular,” Glover said, there were a lot of them — thousands, some wrapped up neatly in foil or plastic cases, others loose in bags.

There were more than 2,900 Austrian coins, many from 1915; 4,500 from Mexico; 500 from Britain; 300 U.S. gold pieces, some dating to 1880; and more than 100 U.S. gold pieces as old as the 1890s. They were stored mostly in 2-foot-by-2-foot-by-2.5-foot ammo boxes stacked on top of each other.

The variety of coins impressed Howard Herz, the appraiser of the fortune for the estate who has seen a lot as curator of gambling collections at Harvey’s Resort at Lake Tahoe from 1960-93.

“It was an extraordinarily well calculated investment in gold,” Herz said.

Besides his house, Samaszko’s other belongings have fetched very little: A bike sold for $2, a saw for $10.70 and a wrench for $15. (A 1968 Ford Mustang California Special will soon be auctioned, appraised at $17,000).

The real money will come when the gold is sold. A lucrative investment in the last few years as the economy remained stuck in a slump, gold is worth about $1,700 an ounce, up from about $400 a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Magdanz has left her apartment to stay in a secret location due to an avalanche of requests from the news media for interviews, Glover said.

“She was so frazzled and so harassed,” he said.

 

Featured image via AFP/Getty

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Comments (27)

  • khutch1965
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 8:32am

    What they mean is she was to get 7 million worth, but will be forced to give the majority of it to the Leftist Govt to spread out to their political buddies for more votes and power.

    Report this comment

    khutch1965  
    • Maji
      Posted on December 19, 2012 at 5:10pm

      Yeah, the government will steal it from her!
      Justifiying it by saying “you didn’t earn that”.

      Report this comment

      Maji  
  • nocommie
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 8:13am

    Good thing he did not live in New Jersey,they would never get the money returned.

    Report this comment

    nocommie  
  • Willik
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 8:06am

    Guaranteed: The Peoples’ Republik of Kalifornia will confiscate the entire booty!

    Report this comment

    Willik  
  • blanco5
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 8:00am

    kalifornia + knowledge of gold coins + out of control gov = it’s the gov’s gold now!

    Report this comment

    blanco5  
  • grannyrecipe
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 6:20am

    @THE-MONK

    Are you the same “Monk” that frequents EG24? Just curious.

    Report this comment

    grannyrecipe  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on December 19, 2012 at 3:02pm

      Hi grannyrecipe,

      I guess not since I don’t know what that is.

      Report this comment

      The-Monk  
  • Stoic one
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 5:55am

    MONK….thanks for sharing your experience .

    Report this comment

    Stoic one  
  • SaturdaysWarrior76
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 4:07am

    Hi MONK: I was asleep and just awoke from a nightmare, turned on the computer hoping to distract my mind a little before I try and go back to sleep. Anyhow, just read your story and was filled with such warmth and good feelings, I want to thank you for posting that little story about kindness. I feel a warm sense of calm around me now, telling me there is still good in the world, good people like you. Your treasures will be in heaven Monk, I have no doubt about that. :)

    Report this comment

    SaturdaysWarrior76  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 12:31am

    Switch to “Oldest to Newest” to read my story in the correct order. I don’t know how this happened but it did somehow. TIA

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 12:13am

    So I went home, got a chair and an umbrella for shade and sat across the street and watched. The locksmith was busy in the front yard with the safe while all the good stuff was being tossed into the dumpster. All his books, framed art and diplomas were overlooked. All the greedy relatives that let this nice old man live all alone for so many years with no contact from them stood around the safe waiting for his treasures and life savings to be revealed. He didn’t like banks you see. It took 7 hours to open that safe. Must have been a Liberty safe LOL. And the only thing in it was a .22 cal old wheel pistol.

    Then the 18 wheeler truck came back, picked up the dumpster and left for the dump. They all stood around the safe for another 2 hours wondering where all his wealth was. I sat in my chair and was saddened as I looked and listened to them. I had counted about $130K stuffed in all those books and picture frames. I never touched a dime and actually added to it over the years. I loved that old man and loved helping him. He was my friend. His family was neither his friend nor mine. I’ve never spoken of this until now and I hope one of his greedy family members is a troll here and reads this.

    Merry Christmas my old friend. I was there for you and wish I could have done more.

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
    • GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas
      Posted on December 19, 2012 at 12:33am

      Hi Monk,

      God bless you for your kind heart with this man! I’m sure he knew you were his friend.

      Report this comment

      GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on December 19, 2012 at 12:39am

      Hi GBTVFan_Non_American_Overseas,

      I don’t know how it posted backwards but I’m glad you were able to read it so quickly. I’m still trying to straighten it up for Jason LOL….

      Thank you so very much. : )

      Report this comment

      The-Monk  
    • bigdaddyt46
      Posted on December 19, 2012 at 6:57am

      hi Monk,
      your situation with this elderly man is exactly one of the reasons why i made the decision 10 years ago when my father died, his last words to me were watch over your mother i took that to heart. 6 months later i moved into my mom’s house and began taking care of her.
      i also made the decision to put my life on hold(finding a wife, an apartment, and my own path) to do just that. my brother sister and father have all died, my twin’s in prison, so in that aspeck i am the only one left.
      my Saint of a mother(i have said often that if the pope does not immediately cannonize her on her death bed, then i have no respect for the Pope. no disrespect here, but getting my point across) told me several times if i have an opportunity that i should take it and move on with my life, that she’ll be fine.
      many opportunities have come where i could get a job making more money then ever before(between $3000 and $7500 a month) which i had to weigh over my current situation, and it all came back to the same thing. i could never leave my mother alone. she has fell many times, a well as diabetes, and other ailments. my full time job is taking care of her without a penny of help(tried every avenue i could think of with the Gov and always got the same answer. we think it is honerable what your doing, but we’re not gonna give you any money to do it.) i can’t work because doing so and taking care of her was running my own health into the ground. so here i sit till the Good Lord calls

      Report this comment

      bigdaddyt46  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 12:10am

    This went on for about 5 years and then one day he was no where’s to be found. I searched all the Hospitals and finally found him. He was being held in a recovery ward for old people after slipping and falling in the bathroom. I went back the next day and was he was not there. I was told that I wasn’t family so they would not tell me where he was transferred to. I had to contact the “family” which had somehow showed up for their share of his inheritance. They had moved him to a place where he would die quickly from being medically ignored. It took 3 days to find him and by then he was dead.
    The whole family showed up at his house to go through his belongings. They took his clothes and furniture and told me, the Gringo, to shove off. Nothing for me. I didn’t what anything; I wanted to show them where he had hidden all of his money. Nope; they wouldn’t listen to a word I had to say. They found the very large safe in his office and assumed all his money was there. The next day an 18 wheeler type truck pulled up with a dumpster that it dropped off. A crew of 5 men showed up also and started tossing everything this nice old man had spent a lifetime collecting into that dumpster. I tried to stop them and was threatened with arrest.

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on December 19, 2012 at 12:10am

    “No one seemed to know him at all, even though he had lived in the house since the 1960s.”

    This is eerily similar to a story I have only with a different outcome. And I hope the greedy Children of a really nice elderly Cuban man are reading this.

    Back in 2004 an old man started banging on my door screaming in Spanish. He lived 2 doors down and was a loner. Not by choice but, because no one wanted to talk or visit him. I didn’t know that until later. I followed him to his house only to find he had a broken hot water pipe under his sink. I turned the water off and he, all of a sudden, spoke perfect English. He came to Tampa in 1960 fleeing Castro and made a nice living as a teacher and an attorney. His family abandoned him when he got old. He was in his 80′s. We became close friends and I did all kinds of repairs on his house. He had full book shelves all over and framed diplomas on every wall. I would go to Home Depot and pick things and make repairs. If it cost me $25 I would tell him it was $5 total with labor and he would go off into a room, pull out a book, pull out money from it and give it to me. I always put the money back when he was sleeping.

    Report this comment

    The-Monk  
  • Fitzzz
    Posted on December 18, 2012 at 11:52pm

    The only good news in this story is that it happened before next year, when the inheritance tax will go way up

    Report this comment

    Fitzzz  
  • Kolbie
    Posted on December 18, 2012 at 11:52pm

    Federal and state agencies are already knocking at the door… that’s why she has gone into hiding. Miss, you need to sell that stuff pretty quick cause we need about $3 million of the $7.8 million you just received. Thank goodness the estate was settled before 2013. Hey you know, you really didn’t make that money and now that you are so rich, you really should pay a lot more than what we are asking you to pay. So why not pay the federal and state tax guys $6.8 million? We (the government) let you keep $1 million!

    Report this comment

    Kolbie  
  • jman-6
    Posted on December 18, 2012 at 11:16pm

    The only reason the Clerk tracked down the next of kin so quickly was so they can tax the “bajeezus’ out of the estate! I sure hope she’s smart enough to hurry up and sell it before ‘Taxmageddon’ kicks in 2 weeks! And if I was her I would change my residence to NV before then too!! Hope she doesn’t let it rob her soul as many do!

    Report this comment

    jman-6  
  • VanGrungy
    Posted on December 18, 2012 at 11:14pm

    Too bad they didn’t know each other.

    That collection could have quietly passed and the Government Thieves would never have known.

    Report this comment

    VanGrungy  
  • TSUNAMI_22
    Posted on December 18, 2012 at 10:24pm

    Jerry Brown will now be knocking on her door with his hand out……just like a good little statist vampire.

    Report this comment

    TSUNAMI_22  
  • banjarmon
    Posted on December 18, 2012 at 10:22pm

    The government just stole over half her Inheritance!!!

    Report this comment

    banjarmon  

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