Man Who Was Living On $200 A Month ion

“It was rough,” he said. “I mean, we would literally go to Costco … and get a Costco hot dog and a Coke cause they were $1.50.”

Everything changed for Loren when he saw an episode of “Antiques Roadshow” in which an elderly man is shocked to learn that his First Phase Navajo blanket is actually worth around $500,000.

“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,” Loren said.

“They were nearly identical. This guy is on TV, the appraiser says $300,000 to $500,000. I’m thinking maybe this one is worth $5 to $10 grand.”

When Loren sent the blanket in for testing, he was stunned to learn that it was one of the finest and rarest Navajo chief’s blankets in the world.

“This has only happened maybe three or four times with an unknown blanket where you see something and you know right away,” said appraiser Joshua Baer.

“You walk into the room [and] you can tell that you’re looking at something that is not just uncommonly beautiful, but that is still very much part of the time in which it was made.”

Even knowing this, Loren was stunned at the auction when the blanket sold for $1.5 million.

“They had to bring over water and stuff to me and wipe sweat off my head,” he recalled.

“I started hyperventilating because I couldn’t believe it. … Everything just went limp and I couldn’t catch my breath.”

Loren used the money he received to invest in stocks and some municipal bonds and buy two houses.

“It’s like, I never had money before, but OK, what do rich people have? When they have this money, what do they do?” Loren said.