Mitch Cronin Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 Without the pictures I don't know if this story would be entirely believable... but holy smokes man! What an incredible find!! A New York man retired. He wanted to use his retirement money wisely, so it would last, and decided to buy a home and a few acres in Portugal. The modest farmhouse had been vacant for 15 years; the owner and wife both had died, and there were no heirs. The house was sold to pay taxes. There had been several lookers, but the large barn had steel doors, and they had been welded shut. Nobody wanted to go to the extra expense to see what was in the barn, and it wasn't complimentary to the property anyway... so, nobody made an offer on the place. The guy from NY bought it at just over half of the property's worth; moved in, and set about to tear in to the barn. curiosity was killing him. So, he and his wife bought a generator and a couple of grinders... and cut thru the welds. What was in the barn? http://www.intuh.net/barnfinds/afa70.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steam Driven Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 Nice retirement plan... Talk about winning the lottery! What a find, it's gotta be worth millions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Innuendo Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 Snopes throws a bit of cold water on the "Lucky find" aspect of the story. They claim that the collection was the work of an automobile dealer. Amazing collection nevertheless. http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/barnfind.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I was going to say... If that story were true, some bureaucrat would have had his butt in a sling for selling it off for taxes without first taking a full inventory of the property. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted September 6, 2007 Author Share Posted September 6, 2007 Rats. ...bamboozled again. ... now that I've dusted off the suspicion receptors, I'm wondering about this line from that Snopes page: "The owner was an automobile dealer in the 1970s and 1980s who had built up his assemblage of cars over the years and stashed it in the barn (locking the structure up when it was full) and who simply hired a photographer recently to document his collection." That sounds a bit more like a nutbar than your average auto dealer... to me anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thebean Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 Rats. ...bamboozled again. ... now that I've dusted off the suspicion receptors, I'm wondering about this line from that Snopes page: "The owner was an automobile dealer in the 1970s and 1980s who had built up his assemblage of cars over the years and stashed it in the barn (locking the structure up when it was full) and who simply hired a photographer recently to document his collection." That sounds a bit more like a nutbar than your average auto dealer... to me anyway... We had a warehouse tenant in Arizona who ran a Ford dealership in Tempe. Every year, he bought the latest Mustang and stored them 3 high in his offsite warehouse, and had a guy run them around the warehouse yard a couple times a year. He figured it was his retirement savings plan. There were some beauties in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted September 6, 2007 Author Share Posted September 6, 2007 Well that sort of makes the point don't you think?... surely any sane car collector would look after such a collection.... not just lock them all away in a barn that doesn't even seem capable of keeping birds out. The condition of the collection makes the scenario where the owner died 15 years ago seem more believeable than that he's still alive and wanting photos of the extent of his neglect. ...to me anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 The guy was more of a pack rat than a car collector, IMHO. Still, there was alot of potential sitting in there, just waiting for someone with the resources to turn it into a good investment. I wonder if there was a '70 Chevelle SS in there ... Dare to dream, Jeff. Dare to dream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 The Mark I Cooper was enough to fill my fantasy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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