today, his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before your begin an aspirin regimen. ♪ was he a life-long hoarder or shrewd collector? the answer lies inside this salvage yard filled with rusty old cars. >> did you know how many cars grandpa had? >> it's a worthless eye sore. his grandson calls it an iron gold mine. >> 500. now 6,000. >> which is the truth? we're about to find out. ♪ i'm jamie colby. i'm just driving into enid,

oklahoma, about 90 miles north of oklahoma city. population roughly $50,000. right here in enid they have the third largest storage capacity for grain on the planet. but wedged in between enid's silos lies the tale of a cantankerous legend who left his grandchildren with a very strange inheritance. >> in 2003, my brothers and sisters and i inherited something pretty unusual from my grandfather. his name was oljiver jordan. he was a child of the bust bowl. he'd hang on to just about anything that passed through his life. >> and oliver jordan kept it all here for 60 years. this salvage lot was his home, his sanctuary, his ft. knox. >> hi, stewart. >> welcome to paradise. >> i found it. >> the rusted old cars in this

shed, some of them relics of the roaring '20s are some of the 200 jordan accumulated over his lifetime. >> born in 1908, jordan was raised on a wheat farm but his real interest was a fabulous new invention, the car. >> grandpa was around machinery all the time. automobiles were just beginning. it was a life-long passion. >> jordan grows up, gets married and then at 34 years old aban n abandons his wife and three young kids for a 16-year-old girl in town. >> when my mother and her brother and sister were still children, my grandfather left the family for another woman. her name was ruby. and that was quite a scandal. everybody was hurt by it. >> in 1946, oliver buys a salvage yard in enid where he and ruby live and where he makes money selling old cars and

parts. oliver runs the salvage yard successfully for seven years. in 1953, he gets into a nasty argument with the town of enid over zoning and regulation. two words he detests. >> the city came in and told him to put in a bathroom and do some other things. grandpa didn't like to be told what to do. >> not a rule follower? >> fine. i'll close the doors. and that's what he did. >> he continues to hoard old cars. he cuts himself off from the rest of the family and rarely lets another soul inside the shuttered salvage yard. >> pretty much everybody in town would drive by this property and see the old cars. some people thought they were an eye sore. >> an enid native recalls going over to his place as a young car buff in the 1970s. >> i walked across the street. mr. jordan, i'm looking for a starter for a continental six

cylinder engine. do you have one? after a long pause he said it's going to be $50. now came back about a month later with my $50. he said, nope, $75. i learned a little bit of horse trading at that point in time. >> as a boy, stewart never gets to know grandpa oliver. stewart's mom, oliver's daughter, dies when stewart is only 6. a tragedy that separates him further from his grandfather. >> we'd come to town and grandpa had all these cars out in front of his property. it's like a little boy's wonderland and he had them protected with a fence and big mean dogs. we couldn't get past the dogs. >> did you ever wish he spent more time with you? were you curious about him? >> yeah. i was eager for the opportunity to get to know him. >> after his mother's death,

sturt stewart and his family move away. when stewart graduates high school in 1984, he decides to take a summer road trip back to enid. >> i got a greyhound bus ticket. he took me over to his shop and i got to spend some time with my grandfather. >> and with all those cars. sure, they look like heaps of scrap but stewart comes to understand this was his grandfather's pride and joy. his collection. its centerpiece, these two depression era cars. >> grandpa had a fascination with the cord. it was the first car that had front wheel drier. they'd done some ingenious things under the hood. >> stewart heads out west for college and launches a successful furniture business in san francisco. then in the fall of 2000, a call from out of the blue sends stewart scrambling back to enid.

>> he opens the door and is covered from head to toe in feathers. >> that's next. but first -- our strange inheritance quiz question. what was the lowest priced mass produced american car? the 1907 curve dash oldmobile, the 1925 ford model t runabout or the 1922 stutz bearcat. in a work, work, work world...

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so what was the lowest priced mass produced american car? it's b, the 1925 ford model t runabout at $260. it sold for $5 less than the 1924 model. for half a century, cantankerous junk yard owner oliver jordan accumulates hundreds of old cars. some very rare and mostly intact but all of them rusting as he grows old. then in the fall of 2000, his grandson stewart gets a phone call that opens the door to a new relationship and to a strange inheritance. >> ruby had fallen off a ladder and broken his hip and was in a hospital. she called worried about grandpa because he was back at the house and he was 94 years old. and that was the open door.

>> and it took until his 90s really? >> yeah, because of who he was. he didn't want to need anybody. >> stewart hops on a plane to oklahoma, not knowing what to expect. >> i knock on the door. he's 6'4", even at 94, he's got quite a commanding presence. he opens the door and is covered in head to toe from feathers. he and ruby had a couple of dogs. one of the dogs had torn up the featherbed. something about him still commanded respect, even covered in feathers. >> seeing oliver in such a terrible state he decides to stay in oklahoma and take care of his grandfather. >> i was getting to know my grandfather through these cars. he was so proud to be showing them to me and me experiencing his pride and joy. >> to stewart, two things become immediately clear. oliver knows he doesn't have much time left. second, he's worried about the fate of those cars. >> at one point, he said thank

god for you. and i think he was so worried about what would happen to his things. >> stewart's no car expert but he does his homework and confirmed the centerpiece of the whole collection are the cords from the 1930s. the ones he remembers from his high school road trip. >> what did the last cord sell for? >> maybe not more than 400 of these were ever made. >> best case scenario? >> i'm thinking best case scenario restoerd, $300,000. >> thoughts like that lead stewart down a road that will take him more than a decade to travel and cost him plenty. he lays out tens of thousands of dollars to ship in secure containers and build a secure storage building to house the most prized cars. >> it's his life's work. these are so valuable. why are they just rotting away here. someone has to step in and do something about it.

>> in august 2003, oliver jordan dies at the age of 95 leaving his enormous automobile collection to stewart and his siblings. >> the original windows they would stick in the sides -- >> stewart tells me this 1924 touring car is one of his personal favorites. it was popular among bootleggers during prohibition. >> this toggle switch is on the dashboard where they'd turn off the taillights if being followed by somebody. >> to hide the booze? >> that's correct. >> these cars represent a snippet of oliver's vast collection. >> there are so many cars. >> it's quite a strange thing to inherit, isn't it? >> before he dies, oliver gives stewart some business advice. >> he said now don't sell all those cars and parts all at once. sell them one at a time. you'd make more money that way. >> after trying to sell a couple online, he realized it would take the rest of his life to

sell them one by one. just getting the titles for all these old cars takes months. >> you had to get titles to every single one of these cars? they are from the '30s. how did you do that? >> first you have to find the car's i.d. numbers. >> you can still read it? >> we had to polish it off. we were able to get titles for the majority of the cars. >> the years click by like odometer miles. and stewart keeps spending more to authenticate and protect the old cars. a lot of plane trps from san francisco and back, too. by 2013, he's invested $400,000 getting the collection primed for auction. ready or not, it's time to sell. >> hey, jamie. >> hi, how are you? >> stewart contacts auctioneer evets vander brink. is stewart sitting on a junk or potential goals mine? >> there's about 220 of them.

mostly american cars. pre-war, which is pre-1942. very rare cars because the start of world war ii they started limiting production. you could only get one from a ration coupon. >> stewart and yvette make plans for a one-day auction right here on the salvage lot. >> word begins to spread. stewart soon learns that not altogether a good thing. >> we arrived at the property and found someone had cut through the fence and cut a hole in the side of this building, the size of a human building and stole over 200 antique radiators, tons of chrome parts. a lot of nice stuff. >> the antique radiators are worth nearly $40,000. but the biggest loss is the rest of oliver's rare and beloved 1904 harley-davidson. possibly worth several hundred thousand dollars. >> really set us back and we had to hire additional security.

and we had to move the auction forward. >> that entails some word of mouth advertising by him and some seat of the pants hot rodding by me. >> is this thing insured? >> why i do. >> that's next. ♪ jamie: we have here's another quiz question -- which of these deceased celebrities' cars sold for the highest bid at auction? steve mcqueen, marilyn monroe or james dean? the answer when we return.

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so which of these deceased celebrities' cars sold for the highest bid at auction? it's the actor steve mcqueen. in 2013 his ford gt-40 sold for

$11 million. stewart is racing to auction off his strange inheritance. hundreds of vintage cars. his grandfather's life-long obsession has become stewart's own. he's invested 13 years and $400,000 in the collection. i catch up with him at the hot rod association rally in oklahoma city. >> my name is stewart. did you know my grandfather? >> while stewart works the crowd, i'm going to see if i can get behind the wheel of one of these souped up automobiles. tell me about this car. >> it's a pe'37 chevrolet. >> part of the family? >> yes it is. >> oh, my. i've just gotten the keys.

>> do you have this thing insured? >> yes, i do. >> i was going to say. there's a tree branch there. all right. hold on. now we're talking. this would work for me in new york. auctioneer yvette vander brink is here, too. you see these shiny red cars. you can tell there must be some value here. some of them look like junk. but they're not? >> no, they're not junk. it's a different trend. >> that trend is called patina. it refers to the factory original pant that shows the ravages of time. some relish that vintage barn fine look and spray a clear coat of varnish on top to preserve it. that could be good news for the rarest cars stewart has. the two cords from the 1930s. if you're like me, you're

wondering what they might look like restored. i didn't have to go far to find out. remember brad who once tried to buy a starter from old oliver jordan? he's a cord aficionado. he spent over 30 years restoring this one. it's a stunning example of what it looks like in all its glory. >> we went through the engine, painted it, fixed the interior. we looked at restoring history and not just putting on a nice paint job and chroming everything. >> 650, 7. >> on june 7th, 2014, it's finally the big day of the auction. >> we'll have fun and book. auctioneer yvette welcomes a crowd of 300 people. >> i hope i covered everything for you. all right. >> stewart's sister twists her

fingers. >> i hope stewart gets back what he's put into it and my other siblings what they've put into it they get back. >> this is mr. jordan's first vehicle. >> stewart's put in 400 grand. will he get it back? >> i have $40,000. >> $40,000? >> that's next.

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now back to "strange inheritance." >> the buzz over oliver jordan's antique car auction has brought collectors from all over the country to enid, oklahoma. some are just looking to buy parts. others are here with plenty to spend for just the right vehicle. >> i came with a trailer and pickup. if i have to, i'll come back with a bigger trailer to haul more cars.

>> you have to be quick to purchase in this game. these cars can go in less than a minute. >> $7500. >> sold it. sold it. sold it. $9,600. >> people seem in good spirits and things seem to be moving pretty well. it's going pretty good. >> stewart's cautiously optimistic. his two beloved cords are about to go up for bid. stuart thinks they'd each be worth six figures fully restored. but how much in this collection? >> 1937 cord 812 beverly supercharge. this was one of mr. jordan's favorite vehicles. it's going to need every little piece restored. $35,000. >> i have $40,000. >> $40,000. 42. and $42,000.

$42,500. sold it. $42,000 going to new york. >> what will the second cord fetch? >> i've got $20,000. >> $21,000. $22,500. $22,500. sold it for 22 -- >> it's over in seconds. the same anonymous telephone bidder paid $64,000 for both cars. stuart says he's not disappointed. >> in this condition, that's a great price. as much as we could have hoped for. it's great because they'll move on. >> after an emotional day, the grand total?

$540,000. sub tract the 400,000 he invested and it's a profit of $140,000 to split with his siblings. the family invested in this strange inheritance and it's no windfall. >> here we go. >> all right. >> then again, watching the grandchildren of oliver jordan pop open the bubbly has to make you wonder. was their 13-year-old enterprise ever really about turning rusted iron into gold or about a different kind of alchemy, one that restores broken and brittle family ties into strong life-long bonds. >> we lost our mother when we were rather young and really didn't get to know her parents that well. this brought us closer. >> with grandpa, what would he say? >> i think he'd say i'm proud of you. >> would that be important to

hear from your grandfather? >> yeah, definitely. and that's really what it was about for me. doing right by him and by my family. >> stuart sold all of his grandpa's cars and regretsed losing only one. the 1924 roland touring car. it was a favorite of prohibition bootleggers. on auction day, an 86-year-old woman came just to see it. she explained her granfather had driven it to the hospital the day she was born and then sold it to oliver jordan. this may have been stuart's favorite story. so stuart asked the man that bought the touring car for $4800 to let him know if he ever resold it. stuart might want to buy that one back. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching. and, remember, you can't take it

with you. do you have a strange inheritance story you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strange inheritance.com. a world famous musician dies and leaves his daughters his prized instrument. >> love, pressure, his heart, his voice. >> it's more than 300 years old and could be worth many millions. but this strange inheritance is about more than money. a european countess, and a huge financial dilemma for his heirs. >> it was clear he did not want it to be hidden away. i'm