Facebook tramp leaves £34,000 in unclaimed pension money

by Paul Conneally | July 14, 2008 at 10:52 am

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Tramps - real tramps with long beards who look, well look like tramps should look, are often loved and hated in the same measure and become someone to look out for. This tramp had a large facebook following and has died leaving all the pension money he never claimed from the state to noone. Here in my town we have a down and out who drinks and calls out to everyone passing usually in a friendly way though not always and he plays a tinwhistle so badly that you long for him to stop yet strangeley listen out for it across the market place and worry when it's not there.

Josef Stawinoga, 86, allowed the fund to build in a bank account for 12 years and refused to touch it, preferring to live in squalor in a tent on a patch of grass separating two carriageways in Wolverhampton, West Mids.

He gained fame last year when a Facebook site was set up in his honour, attracting 6,600 members from all over the world.

Mr Stawinoga, who had a 2ft yellow beard and matted grey hair, reportedly went without a bath for more than 30 years and relied on food donated by friends and wellwishers, especially local Sikhs and Hindus who revered him for turning his back on material possessions. He died last October.