There is a clinically proven sickness associated with hoarding. When I was much younger, we had a neighbor up the street that never got rid of anything. At one point he had 27 cars on his 5 acres. Now to most of us there is nothing wrong with that but he just let them sit there and rot. By the time I was financially solid enough to be active in old cars He was getting up there in age and the county was on his back to clean up his mess. In 1981I had just bought a running and complete '41 Chev coupe for $1000 and then I discovered that he had three of them hidden out in the brush. I went to talk to him and we had a nice visit for the first 5 minutes hashing over old times but then I started to ask him about the future of the cars and if he was interested in selling any of them. He said that everthing is for sale for the right price. I should have seen the writing on the wall. I offered him $1600 for the one decent (not good but restorable) '41 and the two rusty hulks sitting up to the finders in mud. He said that he wasn't going to give them away and produced a copy of Cars and Parts to show me what they were "really" worth. Of course he was comparing them with really nice examples. When we couldn't come to terms on the coupes, we wandered around some and I offered him $700 for a 1962 Stude Hawk with a 289 and lots of rust throughout. He accused me of trying to rip him off and things went down hill from there. I appologized for taking up his time and left. After I got home I felt pretty bad that he had gotten so upset so I called to try to smooth things up a bit. His dear wife answered the phone and I started to explain that I had no intention of taking advantage .... That's all the further I got when she told me not to worry about it and that if it had been up to her she would have given the cars to me so that someone would finally do something with them. Well to make a long story longer, The Mrs. passed away about 6 months later and the Mr. continued to fight the county about the cars but lost the battle. The county towed them all away and sent him the bill. The last I heard, he had moved into an apartment and turned even more bitter. I had some sympathy for him because growing up in the neighborhood we had heard about his injury in the war that had cost him a leg and how he had fought to keep jobs because of it. But I have to say that lots of people have been dealt a bad hand but many of them rise above it...he did not. Wow, I haven't thought about that for a long time. Thanks for listening. Steve

 

Cool story man!
Ya,sort of the same deal out here but,the guy isn't that old,just fat.I kinda got the feeling that he fell into a little bit of money somehow and bought that little piece of property then started buing up all the stuff he always wanted and/or reminded him of something he always wanted,now he's in a bad way.

 

Would he allow a camera?? He is near 830 Federal??

http://yellowpages.mapquest.com/busi...elisting&flv=1

 

Steve, enjoyed your story, thanks. Lots of people have some degree of mental illness but it doesn't get diagnosed. Surely we all knew the "crazy" guy down the street growing up. Bummer for him and bummer for the cars (which surely got crushed).

 

63 half ton - Are you still thinking of going out to Henderson today? I am still trying to figure out if I should switch to the 64 4x4 since I have to get a new engine for my 64 2wheel drive? My body is in great shape with all the chrome and just some surface rust with a few minor dings. How good a shape is it in? Is it a long bed or short bed? Would you want the seat out of mine for the find? Anyway, let me know if you are heading out and if you want me to meet you there to explore options.