In one of the luckiest classic cases of accidental wealth you'll ever hear, a Boston man went from thinking he was done with a modest stock investment to waking up nearly $4 million richer. Funnily enough, it’s all because he forgot he still owned shares in a company that exploded in value over the years.
The man, a 62-year-old salesman who’s chose to stay anonymous, made the investment way back in 1987.
Acting on a cousin’s tip, he dropped $4,500 on 3,000 shares of a then-little-known computer data storage firm called EMC Corporation, buying in at about $1.50 per share — as initially reported by the Boston Globe before being picked up by The Register.
Like a lot of people making long-term bets, he wasn’t exactly checking up on it every day.
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What is EMC?
For those who aren’t in the know, EMC Corporation was a huge multinational corporation in data storage solutions. While it experienced a bit of a slump in some years, EMC was a massive contributor to how we utilise storage technologies in the modern day.
Following a merger with PC manufacturer Dell in 2016, the two then became Dell Technologies.
During the early EMC era of the 1990s, however, the man in question sold off 2,000 of those shares to help cover his kids’ college tuition and, in what turned out to be a wildly profitable oversight, totally forgot about the remaining 1,000 shares.
Fast-forward a decade, and EMC’s meteoric rise through the tech boom — complete with six stock splits, as reported by ABC News — turned that lonely chunk of stock into a staggering 48,000 shares.
What is a stock split?
A stock split is when a company increases its number of outstanding shares by dividing each existing share. That way, shares are more affordable without affecting the total value of the company.
While doing such decreases the worth of individual shares, EMC’s massive boom during the 1990s meant that it didn’t really matter — since the company’s skyrocketing stock increased their value regardless.
By the time someone figured out the man’s situation, his forgotten investment had ballooned to nearly $4 million. When adjusted for inflation, that’s almost $7.5 million in 2025.
He humbly said: “I’m no accounting genius,”to Associated Press, as reported by Crossing Wall Street. That’s a fair enough statement, but he’s definitely luckier than most.
It all came to light when the Massachusetts State Treasurer’s office reached out in October 2000. Under state law, stock accounts that show no activity for several years get flagged and handed over to the Abandoned Property Division.
They managed to track the man down through his sister.
According to the man, he’d long believed he had sold all his shares. Over the years, as EMC became one of the world’s leaders in computer storage tech, he’d watch the company’s stock price soar — occasionally kicking himself for cashing out too soon.
Little did he know he had a box in the attic literally packed with millions.
The man said: “Besides my marriage to my wife and the birth of my children, this is definitely the biggest thing that has happened to me”.
"I'm going to keep my job, help my family, and help some charities."
Despite his sudden wealth, he showed up to claim his prize in full “please don’t notice me” mode: sunglasses, baseball cap, and a puffy parka.
It’s not every day someone gets a multimillion-dollar reminder that sometimes, not checking your portfolio can pay off.