When I spoke to the daughter of a man who had passed away in a nearby town, she told me that her family had lived there for 50 years and they had “a lot of stuff they need to get rid of” so they could sell the house. Both the daughter and son lived hundreds of miles away, so they assured me they would not be “hauling much home”.
I made an appointment and met with them at the house. Although the large living room was filled to the brim with things they had decided to keep, it was a large house and I still had hopes that there would be sufficient value remaining to make it worth while.
As usual, I was wrong! The place had been picked clean and the only remaining items were destined for the dump or the thrift store. At the end of the tour they took me out to the garage to show me a stack of paint and pesticides that would have to go to “hazardous waste”. The rest of the three car garage was crammed with antique furniture, guns, World War II memorabilia, a vintage Harley motorcycle, trunks, crocks, etc.
When I asked what was happening with those items, they explained that the father’s caretaker was a “nice guy” and they had said he could have “anything he wanted”. These were the items he was keeping.
Postscript: Even though he was a "nice guy" and had performed a service for the family, he had already been paid for that service. I doubt that they would have willingly written him a bonus check for many thousands of dollars as a bonus. That is in effect what they were doing by letting him strip all the value out of the personal property.