same. an all-new "strange inheritance" starts right now. announcer: a superstorm gets the jersey shore. >> he walked in and what do you find? >> even get in the front door. >> it was overwhelming the damage that had been done. announcer: a town institution obliterated. the code some superheroes save the day? >> i was holding the book up and i'm screaming like a giddy schoolgirl. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ jamie: i am jamie colby and today i'm driving along the jersey shore, that took a beating from superstorm sandy in 2012. i'm here to meet a family recovering from the disaster and their strange inheritance may end up being their lifesaver. >> i am brick and our family business has been here for generations. i found something that's going to help us save our business in the attic. jamie: this family is best known for an old ice cream shop and restaurant shop called salty's. it was pummeled by superstorm sandy. but salty's was not your average ice cream parlor. >> we were the largest bulk ice cream distributor in addition to

hershey's. every year they would come and give us a golden screw. you're talking 200,000 gallons of ice cream every summer. >> what was the traffic light on a good day? >> salty's was a place to come. jamie:. >> there would be a line out the door, sometimes around the block. it was a nice spot for an evening out. there could be music, get-togethers, always a surprise jamie: why is it important that salty's comes back? >> and anchors our community and the people that come to the jersey shore. jamie: the story of salty's and the strange inheritance begins far from the boardwalk with the families grandfather. gustav. he may have been his own best customer. >> he was an avid comic book

collector. it wasn't just science fiction or superheroes, it was western comic books, comic books about baseball players and others. jamie: gustav's son, bob, inherits his love of comic books. >> my father's favorite cartoon character was named brick. and here is a picture of one. jamie: brick bradford. i see it. jamie: in 1962, bob wenzel open to the beach and opened salty's gifts. it evolved into an ice cream shop and restaurant. as a boy, brick would spend time at salty's. then he would branch out on his own. >> by the time i was 14 years old i had my own bait company. i had a passion to just that has

continued to grow in the commercial print fishing industry. it was extremely profitable. jamie: my first fishing experience. what are we going to do? >> we are going to put you to work. do you want me to wear these? >> yes, i recommend that. jamie: while i do a wardrobe change, let's bring brick's life into this empire. it's a stormy day in 1997. >> wind blowing and lots of rain. jamie: a fishing boat came loose from the dock. >> the fishing boat wasn't just tied up but perfectly. not everyone knows how to tie up a boat properly. >> we had known each other since childhood. jamie: one impressive not all not and then when you know it

that britta and brick tied the proverbial one. when his dad retired, he hands the business down to the kid. >> when there's no tourists, the fishing is what kept us going. jamie: okay, cue the girl in the waiters. >> all right, we have these bluefish here, and then you're going to help us out that. >> you have to get them swimming downstream as they go through. >> okay, i'm doing the best i can here -- okay, if you don't do the right way, you don't get to go to the restaurant. okay, goodbye, see you later. [laughter] >> now we have to put them in the box over here.

and that is a big one right there. >> these will be on their way to new york and in our. jamie: i will have to make a reservation. i still have time. jamie: brick tells me that each box will sell for $80. today's catch is worth about $2800. >> a good day's work. i will see you later. jamie: i will see you later as well. >> fishermen are always striving that they eat well. jamie: britta and brick want a safety net. a way to turn the family business into in enterprise with year-round cash flow. real estate in the community is always a good bet. so they purchase new properties and renovate the family goldmine. when the grandmother died, they remodeled her house as well to after my grandmother passed away, we had to demolish

the building. when we took out one of the walls, there were comic looks stuffed into the walls. just like insulation. we had a feeling that they were worth something, but we didn't know much about it because i'm not a comic collector. jamie: they put the comic books away and didn't think about them very much. they moved onto other ventures. then they really roll the dice. >> we dropped insurance and it that was because the premiums had gotten so high. >> we were looking at over 30,000 dollars in insurance annually. so we decided to take that money and invest it. some in the stock market and some in other properties. jamie: a decade and a half goes be paying off. and then in the fall of 2012, the family prepared to celebrate five decades on the jersey shore. and as they do, on october 22, a tropical storm in the caribbean

becomes hurricane sandy. and the jersey shore is in its crosshairs. >> we saw what happened when a storm hits the jersey shore, but it's the first time that we ever saw a storm of this magnitude. jamie: that is coming up next. announcer: but first, our "strange inheritance" question. which jersey artist has the most number one hit singles? bruce over 200,000 people are hospitalized every year with flu complications. so to kill the germs that may make your family sick, we recommend using lysol disinfectant spray every day. lysol is approved to kill 80 germs, including hard to kill viruses that can live on surfaces for over 4 weeks. it works on hard and soft surfaces to help stop the spread of bacteria. so help keep your family healthy with lysol.

♪ ♪ oh. announcer: which jersey artist has the most number one hit singles to bruce springsteen, whitney houston, or frank sinatra? whitney houston who hit the billboard 11 times. jamie: october of 2012 herriot britta and brick wenzel are planning a celebration for salty's. it's been in the family for half a century. and then they turn on the news. >> there was a state of emergency in the anticipation of hurricane sandy. jamie: to protect what they can, the wenzels closes up the shop and boards it up. >> there are literally waves of water washing down washington

avenue. you can't really drive on these streets right now. jamie: two weeks later britta and brick return home. but nothing can prepare them for what they are about to see a. >> it is overwhelming just to absorb the damage that had been done. the road itself had big holes in it and telephone poles were down. and then at salty's, all the ice cream cases were flipped, all of the display cases in the gift shop or a giant pile of broken glass. jamie: for the last 15 years brick and britta have gone without flood insurance and now they have their luck running out. they estimate that rebuilding the home, salty's and other businesses will run seven figures. they scramble for loans and still learn that there is no

quick fix and lots of red tape. >> this is one building that we are working on. jamie: so all of this just to get one of your properties in order to . >> yes. >> we needed cash right away. at least to start the demolition. the longer it sat, the worse it got. after the storm cash with king around here because people would not work for anything but cash. >> so we started slowly working our way through the family belongings. and liquidating what we can. jamie: as brick was rummaging through the house looking for anything that could be sold, he stumbled across the old stash of comic books. the one that goes all the way back to his grandfather gustav. >> one of the things that my grandfather left for my father in me was the comic books. we had them up in the attic. jamie: how many are we talking

about reign. jamie: that is next on strange inheritance. announcer: here's another quiz question. which was the first comic book hero to get his own movie? wasn't superman, batman or captain

announcer: which was the first comic book hero to get his own movie? it is captain marvel saturday movie launched in 1941 and was followed to the silver screen by superman, batman, captain

america. jamie: in 2015, brick and britta wenzel are scrambling for cash including to revamp salty's, the ice cream parlor that has been in the family for centuries. brick discovers a strange inheritance, comic books, going back to his grandpa that may be a treasure trove. >> he had him in the attic. jamie: how many are we talking about? >> we had over 1100 comic books. >> that is amazing. jamie: what's more is that grandpa gustav kept his comic books in pristine shape. >> there were no wrinkles, they were in great shape and someday

they may be worth something. jamie: and possibly the goldmine that he has been searching for. >> the very first comic book out, i looked it up and it said $1200 and i screamed and i took the next one and that one was 2000 and than 3000 and 4000. and i was screaming like a giddy schoolgirl. jamie: he researched further and learned that the biggest plays to have comics was comic conventions like comic-con. where fans buy and sell comics. >> you can imagine people walking around in costumes. i would rather be wearing rubber slickers. jamie: in march of 2013, the jersey shore fisherman casts his net. he attended a comic book expo are one conventioneer came by.

>> one young man was making out a check and i went over and i took a peek and it was $40 million. jamie: are you exaggerating? >> no. >> i saw that and i said that is who we want to go speak with. jamie: time for me to head down for a little visit. >> this is unbelievable. you must be a kid in a candy store everyday at work. >> every dam the happiest kid in the world and it couldn't get any better than this. jamie: or much more lucrative. >> my company purchased what is the most expensive comic book. action comics is the holy grail. the first appearance of superman. jamie: let's see what he looked like at the beginning. >> they were the ones with the jingles, that is who we wanted

to talk about. >> this is just astounding. jamie: he is definitely intrigued with the collection. >> what was great about his collection is that he had comics from the 19 order you with a superman beating up hiller. jamie: so what happens when he had more? >> you can tell by his expression that he didn't leave that we had them. we have closer to 1200 altogether. jamie: was it worth the trip? >> it was definitely worth the trip. it wasn't just a typical superhero collection. they had war and romance and horror as well. jamie: wow, this is really neat.

how do i know when a comic is valuable? >> there are a variety of different things that go into it. most important one is usually first appearances of superman, batman, spiderman, and then there is the condition. that plays a specific part in figuring out the value. you are looking for an accumulation of defects. whichever one has more defects is the lower rate tending the best one being the worst and you are looking for benz and tears and things of that nature. jamie: vincent hands me a comic book and asks me to smell it. >> tell me what you smell their? >> okay. >> ocean? >> that is actually really good. that comic book was stored in the collection that was by the sea. when you smell something it takes you back to a time in your life. these kinds of things, these nuances can really affect someone and then you say oh, i want that comic took.

jamie: his "strange inheritance" was stored by the sea is well and marinated or decades in whatever brought it up into their attic. waffle cones, vanilla fudge? that would take me back. jamie: so in the end did this save the

jamie: superstorm sandy thrashs the jersey shore in 2012. the ice cream pal or remains out of commission. >> hard to see little kids who run-up the block, and realize we're not open yet. but it takes time. jamie: and money. >> we decided to open a gift

shop, and mark everything do you think. >> everything is on the table. jamie: they are pinning their hopes on 1200 comics that brick inherited from his father, he discovered them in his attic after the storm, and turns into a eager to auction them off. >> so bane different flavors you have everyone feasting to the collection. jamie: brick and brita are not expecting to get as much to fix all of sandy's damage but they hope for enough to tie them over. >> getting rich was not in the equation, it was about recovering from the storm. jamie: in may 2013, 7 months afternoon sandy, vincent opens on-line pwheuding foon bidding . >> they sell over a thousand comic books but a lot go for 10 to 30 bucks.

then some go for more. a lot more. like superman number 15. it fetched $850. and marvel mystery $1200, archie and jug head, 1300. batman 3, 2000, and venus 2250. and the superman clobbering hitler, 3,000. >> how did brick and brita do? we outperformed our preauction estimate by about 50%. >> total hall for the collection, $300,000. >> did your super hero comic save the super day. >> it was seed money for the process of rebuilding from san sandy. jamie: i'm ensured by --

inspired by brick and brita to rebuilt, before i leave, i do my part to help bring salty's back to life. >> what else you got? >> wow. jamie: do we get a lunchbreak? there is one heirloom from his grand fatherly di did not sell, scrap books of comic strips, dedicated to brick's father from before he was born, some are nearly a hundred years old, he may hold them for another rainy day. or just keep them as a memory of the grandfather whose comic collection came to the family's rescue. i am jamie colby for "strange inheritance" thank you for watching. remember, you can't take it with you. jamie: do you have a "strange

inheritance" story you would like to share with us? we'll love to hear it, send me an e-mail or go to our web site. >> a rock 'n roll legend. >> crazy thing about roy orbison from 1959 to 1964 he had 21, top 40 hits. >> he dies too soon with 3 young sons. >> he se secretly wanted us to e musicians but he was not going to push. >> i rubbed my eyes and look add the this. >> i have a cassette of a song nobody heard before. before. >> it will bring roy and his boys together again. jamie: had you always dreamt of plays with your dad. >> always, yeah. >> have mercy.