My husband passed away unexpectedly and I found a USB thumbdrive in our safe. I dont understand bitcoin and could use some help.

I hope this is the right place to get help. My brother in law suggested I try reddit.com for help with trying to recover any amount of money my husband may have used with bitcoin and Google led me to this page. Ive tried my best to figure this out on my own but this bitcoin stuff is confusing and I just get angry and cry. All I want to do is recover any money he may have spent on bitcoin and be done with it.

My husband died of a heartattack two weeks ago and he was our family's only source of income while I stayed home with our daughter. He was only 37 so his death was very unexpected. While going through our safe I found a ziplock bag with the word bitcoin written on it and a USB thumbdrive inside. There was also a card with a bunch of words written on it and a 5-digit number.

The thumbdrive has a little screen and two buttons on it. When I plug it in my computer doesnt seem to recognize it. It looks like it wants me to enter a password but I cant seem to get past the first digit. Im hoping the 5 digit number written on the card is his password but its like its missing a button or something.

I need help getting the bitcoins off of this thumbdrive and then help figuring out how to cash them out.

Thank you Sara

NEW: Hi everyone. Thank you so much for the replies. I thought my post got deleted because my brother in law checked it out after I posted it and it only said [removed]. I had almost lost hope until i decided to check again. Im working through the steps now and will followup once ive made some progress.

NEW2: With the help of the users in this forum they identified the thumbdrive as a Ledger Nano S and I now have access to my husbands bitcoins ($1500!). My next step is to figure out how to sell them. Thanks for everyones help so far!

FINAL UPDATE: Ive started the process of setting up a Coinbase account and getting verified. It seems like that is the easiest place to handle the transfer. Ive received a lot of really great youtube videos that should get me through the rest.

I see a lot of people suggesting I hold onto the bitcoin because the market is down but I'm not in a situation where I have that luxury. The funeral ate into the little savings we had and Im now responsible for all the bills. And to the people who keep saying im doing this for karma, Im not here for your donations so you can keep your karma/bitcoin/whatever.

Once I've figured out the Coinbase stuff and taken care of his bitcoin, Ill go through the other wallets? on his ledger to see if there are any other bitcoins in them. People have also recommended I visit a few sites on his computer to see if there are any saved logins so I'll do that too at some point. If I run into any issues I know where to come for help!

One last thing before I go. PLEASE make sure you have a plan in place to handle these kinds of things in case you suffer an accident or pass away. I had almost given up because I didnt know what I was doing and there is nothing simple about bitcoin. Dont leave your loved ones in the same situation as me. Learn from this and protect yourselves. Give your children a big hug too.

Thanks for sticking with me. Sara

Submitted January 16, 2018 at 08:53PM by ssanders100 http://ift.tt/2Di5gvm