A SWEDISH man, who collected tin cans and ate scraps from rubbish bins, left a secret £1 million ($1.65 million) fortune when he died, Sky News reported.
Curt Degerman, nicknamed “Tin-Can-Curt”, made shrewd stock market investments with the little money he made.
The financial genius could be seen cycling around the northern Swedish town of Skelleftea dressed in a dirty blue jacket and torn trousers. He is said to have led a frugal lifestyle but in between collecting cans and bottles from the coastal city’s rubbish bins he was to be found in the city library studying the stock market in the financial papers.
“He went to the library every day because he didn’t buy newspapers. He knew stocks inside out,” a cousin said at the time of his death, from a heart attack, aged 60, in 2008.
It was then that relatives discovered he had a portfolio of stocks and shares worth more than £700,000 ($1.16 million). In addition, he had purchased 124 gold bars worth £250,000 ($413,543), owned his own home and had more than £4000 ($6616) in a bank account. There was more than £270 ($446) in loose change inside his home.