Paul Milgrom's wife, who is in Stockholm, received a notification when Robert Wilson rang his doorbell.
US economist Paul Milgrom was informed that he won the Nobel Economics Prize with a knock on his door, at 2:15 am. When Nobel Prize committee could not reach him, Robert Wilson, who shared the top honours with him, went to Mr Milgrom's house to share the incredible news.
A video of Mr Wilson, 83, ringing his 72-year-old Nobel partner's doorbell and knocking on his door in the middle of the night has been tweeted by Stanford University.
Both of them are professors at Stanford and live on the same street.
The black and white security camera video shows Mr Wilson and a woman, reportedly his wife, walking to Mr Milgrom's door and ringing the bell. He then knocks the door.
"Paul," he calls continuing to knock the door.
"Paul, it's Bob Wilson," he says as he hears a voice from inside.
"You won the... you won the Nobel Prize," Mr Wilson continues, looking into the security camera. "And so, they're trying to reach you, but they cannot. They don't seem to have a number for you."
"We gave them your cellphone number," Mr Wilson's wife says.
"Yeah, I have? Wow," Mr Milgrom can be heard saying.
"Will you answer your phone?" Mr Wilson's wife asks.
Stanford University said Paul Milgrom's wife, who is in Stockholm, received a notification on her phone when Mr Wilson rang his doorbell. "She got to watch live as Wilson told Milgrom he'd won the #NobelPrize," the university tweeted.
The heart-warming video has been retweeted over 14,000 times and has received over 62,000 'likes'.
Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson won the Nobel Economics Prize for work on commercial auctions, including for goods and services difficult to sell in traditional ways such as radio frequencies, the Nobel Committee said.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences noted that the discoveries by the duo "have benefitted sellers, buyers and taxpayers around the world," it said in a statement.
The winners will share the prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.1 million, 9,50,000 euros).
Speaking to reporters in Stockholm via a telephone link, Mr Wilson said the announcement had been "very happy news," conceding that despite his research focus he himself had "never participated in an auction".
However, he quickly had to retract his statement. "My wife is pointing out that we bought ski boots on eBay, I guess that was an auction," Mr Wilson said.