6 Priceless Treasures Everybody Dismissed As Worthless Junk

6

A 260-Year-Old Stradivarius Left On The Roof Of A Car

In 1967, David Margetts had risen to second violin in a string quartet at UCLA. So great was his promise, apparently, that he had been allowed to borrow a rare Stradivarius violin from the university. Not only was it one of about 600 left in the world, but this particular instrument was the Duke of Alcantara, named for its original owner, a Spanish nobleman. It is believed, at one point, to have been owned by Napoleon. The fact that it was lent to Margetts speaks deeply of the trust the university had in him. Anyway, he left it on top of his car when he drove away from a grocery store.

Pax Ahimsa Gethen/Wikimedia CommonsLike you do with stuff that regularly winds up in the Smithsonian.

At least, he thinks he might have. It also might have been stolen from the unlocked car while he was in the store. He's not really sure what happened. In any case, according to family lore, it ended up on the side of a road, where a woman initially mistook it for a baby. A tragically deformed, violin-shaped baby? Whatever. She eventually gifted the violin to her nephew, who lost it as part of a divorce settlement to Teresa Salvato, who decided this was as good a time as any to take up the violin. Her teacher, the first person to come across the Duke in 27 years who had any inkling of its value, took it to a dealer, who identified it from a photo in a book about its creator. It had the same scratches on the back. It was worth $800,000.

Salvato, who learned from the dealer that the violin was listed in a registry as stolen, took this information to UCLA in the spiritual, if not physical, form of letters cut out of magazines. After she refused to give it back to them, she was somehow surprised when campus police officers started paying her visits. This was 1994 Los Angeles, so frankly, she got off light. The question of who owned the violin was brought to court, but eventually Salvato settled, surrendering the violin in exchange for a payment of a fraction of its worth. We're talking about 1/70th of its worth. We don't know what they did to her to get her to accept that deal, but don't mess with classical musicians, people. They might not look threatening, but they're ruthless.

5

A Pensioner Found A $1 Million Lottery Ticket In The Trash

In late 2005, a story played out in front of a small-town Massachusetts grocery store so heartwarming and unbelievable that if it happened in a movie, you'd roll your eyes while making fart noises. An 83-year-old man named Edward St. John was digging through the trash, so you already know it wasn't his best day, when he found a $1 million lottery ticket. Roll the jaunty closing credits while you mutter "What about the guy who threw it out? Not a very good day for him, now was it?"

4

A Rock Used As A Doorstop For 30 Years Turned Out To Be A Meteorite

The geology department at Central Michigan University is the place to be if you like rocks and happen to be in central Michigan. We assume there are shiny and colorful specimens aplenty at this facility, so when an anonymous man showed up with the nondescript stone seen below, we can understand why the on-duty pebble wrangler, Professor Mona Sirbescu, wasn't particularly enthused.

Mackenzie Brockman/Central Michigan University"Yup, it's a rock. None of those around here."

3

A Man Inherited A House Crammed Full Of Gold

We've all heard jokes about wealthy eccentrics stuffing their mattresses with millions of dollars, but the Cayman Islands exists, so not many of those people keep it truly old school. You'd certainly think you'd know if you were related to one. And yet a Frenchman poking around a house he'd recently inherited from deceased relatives was surprised to find a box of gold coins screwed into the bottom of a piece of furniture. Then another in an old whiskey box. Then another everywhere else in the house. It was "under furniture, under piles of linen, in the bathroom." It was basically the opposite of the dead rats you'll find in the air ducts of your relatives' homes when they die.

2

A 2,400-Year-Old Persian Cup Was Used For Target Practice

In 1945, John Webber's grandfather, a scrap metal dealer at the time, gave him a nice old mug. Like anything shiny and covered in weird faces, little John was drawn to it, but he didn't really give it much thought. He'd use it for target practice with his air rifle sometimes. Mostly it languished in a shoe box under his bed until 2007.

It was only that year, when Webber came across it again during a move, that he decided to ask an expert about the unusual, presumably brass cup. They sent it for testing, and the report came back that not only was it actually solid gold, but it was also crafted in the Middle East about 2,400 years ago. It was put up for auction the next year and sold in under two minutes for over $60,000. Somewhere, Granddad Webber is either cheering or kicking himself, depending on exactly how generous he was.

1

An Old Blanket Turned A Homeless Man Into A Millionaire

By 2011, things were going badly for Loren Krytzer. A car accident four years before had left him disabled and unemployed, and while he wasn't technically homeless because he was paying $700 a month in rent, it was for a shack on a friend's property. That's California for you.

Then, one day he did the same thing many other broke and depressed people across the country do and tuned in to an episode of Antiques Roadshow. Among the objects hopefully paraded before appraisers was a Navajo blanket that turned out to be worth $500,000 -- a blanket very similar to one that was languishing in Krytzer's closet.

John Moran AuctioneersThe one tempting moths and mice to enjoy a $1,000-per-bite lunch.

Krytzer had never given the blanket much thought. He'd taken it seven years earlier from his grandmother's house after she died because no one else wanted it, and for reasons he couldn't quite articulate, he held onto it throughout his journey to the bottom. It was so old and filthy that when he told his mother of his intention to have it appraised, she insisted that "nobody would give you $10 for that freaking thing."