Stockholm: A tramp who scavenged cans for recycling in a Swedish town secretly amassed a fortune of more than £1 million (Dh6 million).
Unbeknown to residents of Skelleftea, the man they called "Tin-Can Curt" was a financial genius who traded on the international markets with the small amounts he earned collecting scrap metal from bins.
Eighteen months after Curt Degerman's death, his relations have been embroiled in a legal battle over his £1.1 million estate.
For 40 years, he was dismissed as nothing more than a bad smelling eccentric who spent his days touring the bins on an old bicycle stuffing the empty containers into bags tied between the handlebars.
After Degerman died of a heart attack aged 60, relations discovered he had left behind a portfolio of stocks and shares worth at least £731,000 in a Swiss bank account and a safety deposit box containing 124 gold bars valued at £250,000.
Degerman, who spent little money and ate leftovers from the bins of fast food restaurants, made his investments after studying newspapers.
"He went to the library every day because he didn't buy newspapers... He knew the stock market inside out," his cousin said.
