Norwegian student Kristoffer Koch makes international headlines after discovering that 5,000 BTC he purchased in 2009 for 150 Norwegian kroner (about $27) was now worth approximately $886,000. Koch had bought the bitcoin while writing a thesis on encryption and then completely forgotten about them. After a frantic search for his old password, he cashed out enough to buy an apartment in Oslo. The story became one of Bitcoin's most famous "what if" tales, inspiring countless others to take a closer look at the technology.
The Guardian: Man Buys Apartment with Forgotten Bitcoin