Wheels of Fortune! Enjoy the story.........

Here's a friend's story about her cousin and his car. The cousin was having terrible financial problems but couldn't bring himself to part with his car for emotional reasons; they'd been through a lot together! Here's how my friend emailed me the story:

The Barracuda, (don't know the exact year, early 70's) was parked on blocks in a quiet residential area in the San Fernando Valley for the past 30 years. Unable to afford restoration, yet unwilling to part with it, my cousin hung on to it and it sat there all those years.

Suddenly, some woman came to his door offering $8,000 for it and saying she wanted to buy it for her husband's birthday. The offer was refused though my cousin could have sorely used that money...he just wasn't ready to part with it, that's how much he loved that car. She somehow got their phone number and continued to make offers, my cousin continued to refuse though the money was so tempting.

A few weeks later, the car was missing, it was taken during the day, right off the blocks (no tires!), without any of the neighbors hearing or seeing anything. When they reported the theft to the police, they were gratefully surprised by their interest and response. My cousin decided to check out a restoration shop in the area and, as he was describing the vehicle, the owner remembered that someone had either called about or actually brought it in for an estimate. He was more than willing to contact the investigating officer and the woman who'd brought it in was arrested (she was actually part of a car theft group) and the car was brought to the shop. A client of this body shop saw the car and had to have it for his collection and offered $85,000.00. "SOLD!", was my cousins response!"

When my friend told me this story, I had to have it for the blog. The cousin paid about $3500 for it in the '70's and got $85,000 for it ... and it was stolen without WHEELS, on blocks, how's that? Do you have a story like this? I hope so!

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