and leading like a alphaman would be a welcome change. >> lou: thank you >> announcer: the heroes of the space race capture the imagination of a young boy. >> we choose to go to the moon. >> the world was fascinated. the astronauts were superstars. >> these are the nation's mercury astronauts. [ applause ] >> announcer: it inspires him to collect all kinds of nasa artifacts. >> that's one small step for man... >> it's one of america's greatest achievements, and i think it's something which will continue to inspire. >> announcer: but when he dies too young... >> i thought, "this can't be happening." >> announcer: ...he leaves his widow an inheritance that's out of this world. ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and today, i'm driving through southern california, where so much of the groundbreaking work for nasa's moon missions was done. i'm going to los angeles to meet a woman who embraced the lifelong passion of her soul mate -- a love for all things outer space. >> my name is shelly cigel. and when my husband passed away, he left me with an incredible collection and a special gift from beyond the grave. well, this is just a few little things that i took out. >> these nasa artifacts belonged to shelly's husband, rick cigel, samples of a lifelong collection that includes everything from engine parts to autographs. >> and this is actually the flag that they had signed, and that was from apollo 12. >> are these control panels? look at this! can i touch this? >> absolutely. please. >> okay. here we go. can you imagine? regulator bleed valve open.

check. m.o.m. open. check. >> looks like it says "mom" to me. >> mom. this is the button that tells mom we're about to lift off. but i heard you have a monkey chair. >> we do. >> i have to see this. because before humans went into space, primates were launched into orbit so scientists could investigate the biological effects of space travel. i hear they paid them in bananas. it looks small enough. you really think a monkey rode in here? >> absolutely. batteries and power switches. >> look -- the battery from sears. that's funny. was rick proud of owning it? >> he loved telling everybody he had a monkey mobile. >> rick cigel is born in 1956 in stevens point, wisconsin. five years later, in 1961, a russian cosmonaut named yuri gargarin becomes the first human in space. president kennedy ups the ante and challenges america to be the

first to put a man on the moon. >> this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. >> alan b. shepard. >> i'm john glenn. >> walter m. schirra. >> to launch the space program, seven men are judged by nasa to have the right stuff and are enlisted into a program named project mercury. >> all systems are go. >> their goal -- to complete a series of manned flights around the earth and pave the way for the moon missions to come. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> human space flight is special, because you're sending people with human eyes and human emotions to truly alien places. >> keith haviland is a space historian as well as an

executive producer of a new film telling the story of astronaut gene cernan and the last voyage to the moon in 1972. >> oh, my golly! >> there's no substitute for human experience, human insight, and human ingenuity in exploration. >> and the awe and wonder felt that by that boy growing up in wisconsin back in the 1960s will last a lifetime. by 1990, rick is a successful l.a. lawyer with the money to start building an impressive collection of space artifacts. >> at the time, nasa was getting rid of all this stuff. they had warehouses of these things, and they were just throwing things away. >> rick tracks down big things and small, from a bottle of cocoa powder carried by astronauts on apollo 10 and a half-dollar flown on the 1965 gemini mission to a pair of soviet space-suit gloves and a

life-size space capsule replica he buys from a former nasa engineer. this is a space capsule. it's being taken off of a tow truck, loaded into his warehouse. >> he has the biggest grin on his face, and -- >> like a kid in a candy store. >> exactly. >> shelly is rick's next major find. actually, the 39-year-old milwaukee native found him on the jewish dating website jdate. what was it about rick that caught your attention? >> well, i had certain parameters i wasn't gonna go with. an attorney was one of the guys i would not date. but as i was looking through, i saw he was from wisconsin. and i sent him an e-mail that said, "you can't be that big of a jerk if you're from wisconsin." >> in 2007, rick and shelly move in together. did you want to marry him right away? >> i actually told rick i would never, never, never get married again. i was married once before. but as the years went by, we were talking about it.

>> then, at the age of only 56, rick cigel's health suddenly starts to fail. he suffers a stroke in 2012. the following year, there's more bad medical news. >> we were told he had stage 4 colorectal cancer. >> did your life change in that instant? >> yeah. yeah, it did. i was never so scared of losing somebody in my life. >> his days numbered, rick knows he must prepare shelly to deal with what will become her strange inheritance. he doesn't want her to keep it all but to sell it, hopefully to space nuts like him. that's when shelly comes to realize how vast and valuable rick's collection is. i heard it was enough to fill a warehouse. >> yes. >> there's a survival radio from mercury 9, a checklist from apollo 17, and this apollo hand controller for adjusting altitude.

then shelly clocks in this old camera, a hasselblad 500c. >> when i found it, i said to him, "oh, i used to take pictures with a camera like this in high school." and he laughed at me. said, "oh, no. you definitely didn't take a picture with something like this." >> that and a lot more is next. >> announcer: but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. in a radio transmission from apollo 8, the astronauts reported seeing an object flying near them. what did they say it was? the answer in a moment. potsch: you each drive a ford pickup, right? (in unison) russ, leland, gary: yes. gary: i have a ford f-150. michael: i've always been a ford guy. potsch: then i have a real treat for you today. michael: awesome. potsch: i'm going to show you a next generation pickup. michael: let's do this. potsch: this new truck now has a cornerstep built right into the bumper. gary: super cool. potsch: the bed is made of high-strength steel, which is less susceptible to punctures than aluminum. jim: aluminum is great for a lot of things, but maybe not the bed of a truck. potsch: and best of all,

this new truck is actually- gary: (all laughing) oh my... potsch: the current chevy silverado. gary: i'm speechless. gary: this puts my ford truck to shame. james: i'll tell you, i might be a chevy guy now. (laughing)

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enter your idea and we'll find you a one of a kind name. we've helped 17 million people find the perfect domain name for their website. get your domain name and start building your website for free! ♪ >> announcer: so, what did the apollo 8 astronauts say was flying near them? take a listen to command module pilot jim lovell. >> the stars align all too briefly for soul mates rick cigel and shelly lokietz. at the age of 57, rick learns he has stage 4 cancer and may only have months to get his affairs in order. in his life before shelly, rick amassed a huge collection of space memorabilia, now destined to become shelly's strange inheritance.

it includes hundreds of items you'd expect to find in a nasa warehouse or a museum, like, for instance, the udvar-hazy center in virginia, part of the smithsonian's air and space museum. i asked curator jennifer levasseur how all those artifacts could end up in the garage of a guy like rick cigel. and nasa just let astronauts take home stuff from their missions? >> that tended to happen quite a bit more up and through the end of the apollo period. astronauts often took home memorabilia. afterwards, shuttle astronauts had to give everything back. >> for example, those cameras from the mercury missions. >> the first astronaut to take one to space was wally schirra on his mercury mission. he was an amateur photographer, and they got some more in order to train with them and then, of course, take them to space. >> how important was photography in space? >> it's really fundamental to everything that we understand as people who can't go their ourselves. it's a tremendous value to

scientists who started to study weather from space. so, this is kind of the early phases of learning about the earth. >> now they're sought after by collectors, some selling for six figures. so, looking to provide shelly a cash cushion and a crash course in selling space memorabilia, rick cigel asks his friend, a new hampshire auction executive, bobby livingston to unload his rare hasselblad. >> that's the first time he told me that he -- he was dying, that he had cancer. i'll never forget it. >> livingston knows rick's anxious to complete a sale quickly but must verify the camera is an original that flew into space. turns out it isn't that simple. rick bought it from mercury astronaut gordon cooper in 1995 for $19,000. and he gives the auction house two letters of authenticity to prove it, along with actual photos that the astronaut said

were taken from space with that camera. "i took the photographs with a hasselblad camera. the serial number on the camera body is tv 45279." but when the auction house submits the camera for expert analysis, the results surprise everyone. did it end up being gordon cooper's camera? >> it did not. >> uh-oh. that's next. >> announcer: here's another quiz question for you. how many of the original seven mercury astronauts walked on the moon? is it... the answer in a moment. rethink what's possible. rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief

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>> announcer: so, how many of the original seven mercury astronauts walked on the moon? only one -- alan shepard during the apollo 14 mission. >> it's 2014 in los angeles. shelly lokietz and her longtime boyfriend, rick cigel, are stunned when rick is diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. >> rick said he felt like charlie brown with lucy and the football. and i said, "you're not gonna die. we're gonna -- we're gonna get this -- you're gonna get better." >> but rick seems to know the end is near, and he's determined to give shelly a head start on dealing with the strange and valuable inheritance he'll leave her -- a huge collection of space memorabilia. it took him decades to amass, and he may only have months to live. >> he really saw his mortality. he wanted these items to go to people that would appreciate them like he did. >> of the hundreds of items,

rick zeroes in on this hasselblad camera for a quick and easy sale. he bought it from astronaut gordon cooper, who stated, in writing, that he used it snap some of the earliest pictures from outer space in 1963. but it now appears that couldn't be true. the auction house gets a confusing report from the authenticator. what was the news? >> it's not authentic. >> a fake? >> it's the proper period, but this camera was not gordon cooper's. >> how did you know that it wasn't gordon cooper's? it came with a letter saying it was. >> this scratch right here -- that's the smoking gun. >> houston, we have a problem. it takes precious days to solve the mystery. the key clue comes when the auction house compares rick's camera with the one wally schirra took into space the year before cooper's flight. >> our forensic expert, with

photographic evidence, was able to find scuff marks that matched exactly to schirra's camera. this is schirra's camera, taken in 1962, and it matches exactly to the one that rick bought. >> so, rick thought he was buying gordon cooper's space camera, but he was really buying wally schirra's. but how could that be? >> they took home each other's things, but both astronauts sold their cameras believing that this was schirra's and this was cooper's. >> far from being a problem, it turns out to be a good thing. schirra was the first guy to take it up in space. this is the most famous hasselblad there is. >> so, wait a minute. that sounds like it's worth more. >> it is worth a lot more, not only financially but historically. i mean, this is the most important hasselblad ever made. >> when the auction is announced online, it's no surprise the camera catches the eye of filmmaker and space historian

keith haviland. >> it's the first such device that captured images of the quality necessary to give a sense of the world as it is -- the blue, fragile planet on which we live. >> then comes the live auction in boston on november 13th, 2014. >> our first item is the first hasselblad camera in space. >> haviland makes the winning bid, a whopping $275k. >> sold! >> when it arrived, i mean, that was a magic moment, holding it in my hands for the first time. >> there will be one more strange twist involving that hasselblad. but not before, back in los angeles, rick's health worsens. he has time to get just one last thing done. >> he said, "would you still want to get married, knowing that you could be a widow so soon?" >> mm. >> i said, "i would rather be

your wife for one day than to be your, quote, girlfriend of eight years." >> you ever regret the decision to marry with him being so ill? >> no, because i have his name. and that was the other thing i said to him. "i want your name." >> the doctors remove his breathing tube for a few moments, and a justice of the peace marries the couple. >> right before he died, he opened his eyes one last time. he looked at me, and he squeezed my hand. and that was it. his heart just stopped. >> on the same day she is a bride, shelly is a widow. and soon, she will have to deal with her strange inheritance. >> there's no way i could go through everything. i think there were things that rick forgot he even had. >> but there's one thing rick did not forget. you get a call that he has another little something for

you. >> yes. >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad.

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♪ >> announcer: and now, the conclusion of "strange inheritance." >> in 2015, shelly cigel inherits the daunting task of dealing with her late husband, rick's, enormous space collection -- thousands of relics accumulated over a lifetime. >> i think there were things that rick forgot he even had. >> having just watched a space camera rick bought for $19,000 bring in $275k, she reaches out to rick's friend bobby livingston for help. >> there's no way i could go through everything. we had so many different things, even from the astronauts themselves. >> she starts small and puts 20 items on the auction block.

shelly follows the action from what is now her home in brentwood, california. >> what was that like for you? >> that was the first time i watched an auction by myself, without rick. >> among the artifacts, a buzz aldrin-signed life magazine cover goes for $530. a piece of mercury 4 cable fetches $1,300. an apollo light meter -- $1,700. michael collins' slide rule -- $3,000. gene cernan's apollo 17 checklist -- $4,800. gordon cooper's command wings -- $6,000. a soviet cosmonaut's soyuz 17 film cannister -- $13,000. and prices keep going up. take cooper's survival radio. >> in case he needed to communicate with nasa, should he be lost somewhere, if he crashed out in the desert. what do you think this sold for?

>> $10,000? >> very close. a little under $15,000. >> and this apollo altitude controller fetches $74,000. >> i kept saying to rick, "we did it. we did it." >> how much did you get? >> um... >> a lot. >> a lot. yeah. >> shelly's final tally for the auction -- over $100k. but a big part of shelly's strange inheritance remains, like that monkey chair, nasa instrument panel, autographed photos, and full-size replica space capsule, plus hundreds more artifacts. shelly hopes to find a buyer for them someday. and who knows what it all might be worth? do you feel that you fulfilled rick's wish in having the items you sold recently get into the hands of other people who will appreciate them as much? >> oh, absolutely.

you realize that these are people who know what they're buying. these are once-in-a-lifetime items. these things don't come up again. >> and now, that final twist we promised was coming. you get a call that he has another little something for you. >> yes. >> it was just a few days after her husband's funeral. an e-mail appears in shelly's in-box. it's from an auction house telling her that, before he died, rick had bid on a rare wedding ring. >> an e-mail popped up that said, "congratulations. you won the ring by proxy bid." when rick was in the hospital, he put a secret bid in. where everybody should be thinking about him, he was always thinking about me. >> someone still had to pay for it, but it seems rick thought of that, too. remember that space camera rick was so anxious to sell?

bobby livingston wires some of that cash, and just like that, a package arrives. >> i opened it up, and it was more beautiful than i imagined. >> rick had good taste. >> yeah, he did. >> now, that's a "strange inheritance" story. one look at shelly and you can tell she's over the moon. roger that, mission control. it is kind of amazing that more than half of americans living today weren't even born when man last walked on the moon. will we ever go back? well, at least one space-tourism company is taking reservations for a to-be-determined blast-off date. shelly wishes rick would have lived to see such a day. he would have done anything to get one of those boarding passes and no doubt return with some incredible photos and souvenirs for his collection. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and

remember -- you can't take it with you. >> he was the man who had everything... >> this has about 750 to 800 horsepower. >> ...but never enough of these. >> he told me he was bringing in about one tank a week. >> i imagine a small country could win a war with these. >> yeah, i hear that a lot. >> my dad started a tradition of getting an old, beat-up car, and then he would crush it with a tank in the field out here. >> his death puts his heirs on a mission. >> is this what your dad would want? >> you push up on that. >> start. [ engine turns over ] >> just like that, she comes to life. >> and talk about sticker-shock and awe. >> was the auction a nail-biter? >> you bet it was. >> $300,000. $350,000. sold. ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and, today, i'm driving up a long, steep hill in portola valley, california, near san francisco. i'm here to visit the heirs of a man who made the record books with his incredibly strange collection. and if i'm lucky, i may even get to ditch this s.u.v. and take the controls of a serious off-road ride. >> my name is allison littlefield. these are my half brothers, david and scott. >> when our father died, in 2009, we inherited 240 armored military vehicles. >> lots and lots of tanks. >> hi, allison. i'm jamie. >> hi. nice to meet you. >> thanks for having me up. this is a magnificent ranch. the ranch is very nice, but i'm here to see something else. >> come this way. >> these are real? >> these are real. >> this is one of several buildings on the littlefield

ranch where they garage their strange inheritance. some guys collect stamps and coins. their dad, jacques littlefield, collected tanks. in fact, what you see here is part of the world's largest private collection of armored vehicles. allison tells me some of these tanks are incredibly rare, including this world war ii german panzer iv... this 8-ton half track... and this sherman tank. what a collection. >> it is a real preservation of history, and that's what i'm so excited about. >> so, how did all of this get started? well, jacques littlefield is born in 1949, the son of edmund wattis littlefield, heir to a prosperous mining and land-development company called utah construction. at an early age, jacques develops a strong interest in all things mechanical. >> this is him as a young boy, playing with his model train

set. >> he looks almost like he could be in an ad for trains. >> i know. it's such a sweet picture. [ gunfire ] >> in the late '60s, the vietnam war is raging, but jacques is never drafted, due to hearing loss from a childhood bout with encephalitis. he attends stanford university. after majoring in economics, he goes to b-school, then takes a job at hewlett-packard. that's where the 23-year old littlefield meets his new boss, bill boller, who becomes a lifelong friend. he shares with bill his latest passion -- tanks. where did it begin? >> he checked a book out of the library called "american tanks and tank destroyers." and that book attracted his attention so much that he said it all started there. >> jacques' first military purchase -- in 1976, for $3,500 -- is this m3a1 world war ii wheeled scout car, which saw combat both in north africa and the invasion of

sicily. i find it ironic that he collected tanks even when people were anti-war. would he have shown up at a protest? >> jacques was conservative in his politics, so no. he would definitely not have shown up at a protest and probably would have pretty much ignored it. >> 1976 is also the year jacques' father sells the family business empire to general electric, in what was then the biggest merger in u.s. history. his dad's now a billionaire, and son jacques leaves h-p to manage his personal fortune. he takes up residence here, at pony tracks ranch, gets married, and starts a family. scott, what do you remember most about your dad? >> building stuff. we used to go to the woodshop and make things there. i'd have birthday parties, and we'd get to go around on a sherman tank. >> one of my favorite events was our 4th of july party. [ all cheering ] my dad started a tradition of getting an old, beat-up car, and then he would crush it with a

tank in the field out here. >> [ laughs ] >> a truly successful army is one that will not be called upon to fight, for no one will dare to provoke it. >> the timing of jacques' interest in tanks is perfect. with the u.s. military expanding under president reagan, the pentagon is getting rid of a lot of outdated equipment. jacques snatches up a few tanks and then a few more, including this m5a1 stuart tank, built by cadillac back in 1943, a model used in the invasion of normandy. jacques buys it for $20,000. the end of the cold war and then the first gulf war lead to more tank-buying opportunities. jacques pounces. sherman tanks... this m1917 "6-ton tractor"... a russian t-72 used by saddam hussein's forces...

even a scud missile launcher. jacques builds these barns to house them all. >> this is him working at the tank-restoration shop here on property. he was very involved in the process. he really enjoyed it. >> so it's a professional operation. >> oh, yeah. i mean, he had a great team of people who would rebuild these things down to the nuts and bolts. >> i remember i was in ukraine and i saw a tv show starring my dad. >> this has about 750 to 800 horsepower. >> it was a strange experience. >> in 1999, at the age of 50, jacques is staggered by a colon-cancer diagnosis and goes into treatment. >> i was in a bit of shock when i first found out. >> did he tell you or did he hide it to himself? >> he was very good at hiding it. >> he always had a really positive attitude. >> and a life's-too-short outlook that, as his cancer goes into remission, sends his

tank-buying into overdrive. >> he told me he was bringing in about one tank a week. >> do you have any idea how much money he spent? >> [ laughs ] >> a lot. >> yeah. i prefer not to think about it sometimes, but, yeah, definitely, it was his passion. >> coming up, the tank -- and the challenge -- jacques littlefield was most passionate about. plus, it's my turn at the controls. okay, i'm up. how do i get in? >> any way you can get down in there is fair game. >> but, first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. how did these armored vehicles become known as "tanks"? the answer in a moment. poor m. allergies? stuffy nose? can't sleep? take that. a breathe right nasal strip instantly opens your nose

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>> the answer is "c." during world war i, the british coined the term as a code name to keep their development a secret. >> i try not to have too many duplicates of what other collections would have lots of. >> in the early 2000s, jacques littlefield, the world's foremost armored-vehicle collector, seems to be beating colon cancer. the fight lays him low, physically, but it only revs up

his passion for tanks and more tanks. he asks his dear friend bill boller to help restore them. >> he told me he was bringing in about one tank a week, every week for the last several years. >> by 2007, jacques' shopping spree gets him into the guinness book of world records for the largest private collection of armored vehicles, with 229 of them. only a year later, he has 240. but his cancer returns with a vengeance, and in january 2009, he tells bill he's just hoping to finish one thing before he dies -- the ongoing restoration of a super-rare german panzer v panther. jacques considers it his greatest find. >> the story, as we understand it, was -- it had to retreat, and on its way through poland, it attempted to cross a frozen river. and the tank broke through the ice and fell to the bottom. it sat under this river for about 50 years.

>> it's not in good condition. >> this particular restoration started off looking worse than this turret right here. it was remanufactured here in its entirety. >> just in time for a fast-fading jacques littlefield. >> we had a discussion about it, and although the turret had not been put on it, he smiled and he said, "i'm satisfied". >> look at it now. how long does this take? >> the total restoration took seven years. it's one of only two that are really restored to this degree. >> how much did he pay for it? >> this is a fairly valuable tank. there are multiple millions of dollars in it. >> on january 7, 2009, just days after he tells bill boller he's satisfied, jacques littlefield passes away at the age of 59. [ bagpipes playing ] >> there was a procession, and the coffin was carried on the back of a tank.

>> the mechanics he'd been working with thought that would be a fitting way to send him off. >> jacques wills the entire tank collection to his children. >> it was really scary to lose him so young. i turned 20 a month before he passed away, and it kind of went from being in college to having to take on a lot of responsibility very quickly. >> so, what do you do when you've inherited a collection of 240 armored vehicles? in keeping with jacques' wishes, there's a trust for the tanks, controlled by allison and her half brothers, but no instructions on what to do with them. >> he never left me with any sort of message regarding the tanks, specifically. >> so the siblings call jacques' friend bill boller back to active duty. he'll lead the littlefield heirs through the quagmire ahead. >> the objective was to find a long-term solution. >> in the short term, i'm wondering what it's like to

drive one of these things. >> why don't you climb up and get in the driver's seat? >> right on cue. bill says it's an m551 sheridan, one of jacques' favorites. okay, i'm up. how do i get in? >> any way you can get down in there is fair game. >> i can always get new knees, i suppose. >> [ laughs ] >> if you look on the floor, you'll see there's a great, big single brake in the center. >> got it -- brake. >> and there's a foot throttle on the right. >> probably no texting at this time. >> probably not a good idea. >> okay. >> we're not gonna turn on anything else other than, now, the starter, which is the next lever over. you push up on that. >> start. [ engine turns over ] >> just like that, she comes to life. >> oh, my gosh. >> okay. so... >> are you belted in? >> i've got a great, big handle i can hang on to here, and if i get in trouble, i'll just jump. put your other foot on the accelerator and let the brake off, and we're out of here. go for it. ♪ pull hard as you can.

pull real hard. give it lots of gas. [ tracks screech ] right there is just fine. >> i think that's good. [ engine shuts off ] oh. enjoyed it so much. i can't wait to do it again. [ laughs ] can i come back tomorrow? >> well, we've got 80 more that you've got to try. they're all different. >> i should test-drive them before i make a decision. >> [ laughing ] yeah. >> after their father's death, the littlefield heirs retain a skeleton crew of mechanics, just to keep all those tanks in good shape. did you ever say to yourselves, "let's just sell it"? >> no. >> i was hoping that we could maybe keep the collection somewhere locally, but after all those options were explored, there wasn't any way we could keep the collection together

here. >> then, in 2013, a visitor from the east drops in. rob collings represents a well-to-do family in massachusetts that's devoted to military history. >> let's go for a flight. >> he tours the country with world war ii planes, like this b-17 flying fortress. collings is looking to maybe buy a tank or two, when bill boller takes the conversation to a whole new level. >> bill said, "you know, i don't want to sell you a tank." i thought to myself, "what did i say?" he goes, "i want you to have the whole collection." >> in short order, the two men draw up a plan to create a jacques littlefield tank exhibit in massachusetts. >> we would grant all the assets to them, and they would take the responsibility to provide the plans for a building, the land for a building. >> but just because you're willing to give away a fleet of tanks doesn't mean you can just hand over the keys and be done with it. is a family that inherits

something this vast responsible for also raising the finances to do it? >> i don't know of any museum, even those that are well-funded, that would volunteer and come in and take on this type of a responsibility. >> for this entire scheme to work, the littlefields must accept an arrangement to raise a certain amount of money. did you know what that number was? >> yes. >> and it's a big chunk of change. can they do it? >> sold. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. this german personnel carrier from jacques littlefield's collection was driven by lee marvin in the world war ii classic film "the dirty dozen." what's this model of half-track called? is it a... the answer when we return.

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>> so, what's this 12-ton vehicle used in the world war ii classic "the dirty dozen" called? it's "a," a prime mover. lee marvin drives it, playing an insubordinate officer on a top secret mission to assassinate a group of nazi generals. >> it's july of 2014, and the littlefield family is nervous. they've agreed to donate their strange inheritance -- the largest private collection of armored vehicles in the world -- for a new museum to be built by the collings foundation, in massachusetts. the foundation cannot house all 240 tanks in the museum, just the cream of the crop. >> we had a methodology going into this of what vehicles we wanted to present, and that boiled down to 85 tanks. >> they're jacques littlefield's

greatest treasures. they include the personnel carrier used in "the dirty dozen" and the german panzer v panther tank that jacques littlefield finished restoring right before he died. littlefield's kids wish collings didn't have to split up their dad's collection but know some must be sacrificed to fund a permanent home for the rest. and museums cost a lot of money. so, along with bill boller, they gear up for a barn-burner of an auction on their ranch outside san francisco. it's not easy to put a collection together and have the funds to open up a museum. did you know what that number was going into the auction? >> yes -- around $10 million. >> $10 million dollars, and failure's not an option. if the numbers fall short, some of their father's most prized vehicles that they dearly want in his namesake exhibit must go. >> we picked out five very, very

rare vehicles and we put a high premium on those. >> valued at several hundred thousand dollars each, the five include this sherman tank, the last of its kind... a german 8-ton half-track, just as coveted as the 12-ton used in "the dirty dozen"... an american amphibious assault vehicle... a german panzer iv... and this jumbo sherman, one of just eight in the world. what was that day like? >> i don't even know how to describe it. it was a little bit nerve-racking, like, "oh, are we gonna raise the amount of money that we need?" [ auctioneer calling ] >> the auction seems to get off to a strong start. this 2s7 self-propelled gun fetches $92,000. this humber armored car -- $97,000. amphibious tank -- $172,500. grant tank -- 276k. stuart tank -- 310k.

and that scud missile launcher goes for $345,000. they're north of a million, heading toward 2, but still a long way from 10. will they have to sell any of those rare tanks to reach their objective? >> that was the million-dollar question. >> the answer next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. it's time to rethink what's possible. rethink the experience. rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief uses unique mistpro technology and helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. rethink your allergy relief. flonase sensimist. ♪

>> now the conclusion of "strange inheritance." >> for all their lives, the children of jacques littlefield watch their dad collect tanks, tinker with them, and deploy them in the coolest birthday-party entertainment ever. after he dies, they decide to share their strange inheritance with the world. what's it gonna be like to go into the structure and not see tanks anymore? >> i don't know if it's so much

as seeing tanks as it's the smell of the diesel and the grease that i really love. >> $200,000 to start the bidding. $200,000. >> having agreed to donate the collection to the collings foundation, allison and her half brothers must watch some of their dad's tanks be auctioned off in order to raise $10 million to erect a museum in his honor. [ auctioneer calling ] but as the auction nears the end, it appears receipts are still short of that target. at least one of five super-rare tanks the littlefields fervently hoped to see in the museum may have to be sold, but which one? >> sold. >> the bidders get to choose. only one of the five tanks attracts a bid above the confidential reserve. it's the 8-ton german half-track, a hot ticket from world war ii. and it goes for $1.2 million. the auction passes the $10 million mark. for the littlefields, it's

mission accomplished. is this what your dad would want? are you convinced? >> i think this is definitely the best option that we have available to keep the core collection together and have his name attached to it. >> when we are through with the collings museum, this will arguably be the finest collection of its sort anywhere. >> and it'll be the littlefield collection. >> it'll be the littlefield collection. remember how we told you about jacques littlefield's july 4th tradition, when he would haul out an m60 patton tank and stage a fight between the tank and a civilian car? it's so much fun, we thought you might like to see another of jacques confrontations. [ all cheering ] >> [ laughs ] >> all right in your own backyard. what a dad. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance."

thanks so much for watching. and remember, you can't take it with you. there is one more chance. the station must end this culture eight them. with the security clearances. the department of justice is open for business and i have this morning for would be leakers don't do it. >> jeff sessions putting leakers on lockdown just this week a series of leaks detailing president trumps conversations with foreign leaders his conversations with military leaders. and then the revelation and the special counsel