Imagine that you inherited an old and mysterious family safe. Its contents are unknown to you. But here your first problem gets in your way - you need to extract an object weighing about half a ton from the basement of the house, which is due for demolition in the near future.
In this situation, Jacob found himself. He completely focused on the task of taking the safe out of the house and forgot that establishing its contents can be of no less importance. When, finally, the man managed to open the safe, he was shocked by what he saw.
Jacob makes desperate attempts to remove the safe from the basement
The safe was in the basement of his grandfather's brother. The family owned it for several centuries. During this period, the house more than once passed from one hand to another, so no one knew exactly who it belonged to before.
Realizing that his time was limited, Jacob set to work.
“My friend had a cart for transporting furniture, and we decided that we can handle the safe together. We loaded it onto the trolley with relative ease, but then we couldn’t even climb one step to lift it up, ”says Jacob.
Jacob decided to change his tactics. A few weeks later he returned to the basement with his father. This time he carefully prepared for the solution of the task. Now he had at his disposal “heavy artillery” in the form of a loader. To raise the safe, they built a special ladder and fixed it on the stairs so that it would not slip.
“We understood that human strength would not be enough to lift this thing up the stairs. Therefore, we decided to tie a towing strap to the safe in order to pull it up with a forklift, ”the man continues his story.
Men have tried several lifting options. After several unsuccessful attempts, they all managed to raise the safe upstairs.
Next, the safe had a trip to Jacob's garage. It was loaded onto a trailer and sent on the road. So that the safe does not attract prying eyes, the piece of cloth used to lift it was decided not to remove it.
The safe was helped by a copy of the manufacturer’s instructions that Jacob’s grandfather had
“We moved it to the garage without much effort. I cleaned it of dirt, then talked about it with my grandfather and learned a lot of interesting things. He later gave me a piece of paper, which was a copy of the original sheet of the manufacturer with a secret combination! It’s time to open the safe! ”
“The locking mechanism was not like the ones I had previously encountered. In order to open it, it was necessary to establish 4 numbers. In accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, the dial should first be turned clockwise to the first day, then 3 times counterclockwise to the second day, then 2 more times clockwise to the third day, and finally 1 time counterclockwise to setting the fourth. If my grandfather didn’t have instructions, I would never have guessed how to open it, even if I had a secret combination. ”
Jacob was very happy that the key was already in the safe. After all, when he opened the first door and saw another one behind it, he managed to get upset, deciding that this would be the end. But the next door opened without problems, and several compartments appeared in front of the man's eyes. The jewelry compartment was empty. The only thing a man found is a bunch of different papers.
Safe owner made money in the stock market
“Ray was notorious for his love of money. Moreover, he was a very mean person, so I had no idea what I should expect when I turned the key. Among his interests were gold, land and money, but most of all he earned in the stock market. Working as a farmer in the wilderness of Illinois could not bring him big dividends, and he perfectly understood that.
Documents, documents and documents again!
In another compartment of the safe, which was also opened with a key, nothing was found. So Jacob decided to review the papers. In the safe there were many documents of various charitable organizations, as well as documents on the issue of life insurance. It was even discovered an old testament, which has long expired. But there was something more interesting about this stack of papers.
“We found 2 certificates for 30 shares of Disney. I understood that my grandfather’s brother did not have any rights to own the property of a well-known company in connection with his death. ”
Jacob decided to deal with property rights in more detail
“We contacted a financial adviser, made a number of documents and conducted some research, as a result of which it was established that the money for these certificates was not paid! My grandfather and I are going through the process of changing names in certificates so that they become valid again. ”
As a result, it was found that the cost of this find can be more than 50 thousand dollars!
This is a crazy story. You never know what treasures you can take from your ancestral home.