I had a guy try to sell me my friends Gibson Les Paul.
We're sort of guitar nuts and have been for ages. About 20 years ago while a good friend was at a gig, somebody stole his 1977 Gibson Les Paul Custom. That was his baby. I understood exactly how shattered he was when it was stolen.
We put up signs, offered rewards with no questions asked, the whole 9 yards.
Nothing.
About 2 years later after a gig I was in, this fellow comes up to me and asks me if I would be interested in a Gibson. Well, sure. Of course I am. (at the time I only had my Stratocaster and my Epiphone Les Paul which I still have to this day)
So I go out to the parking lot with this cat and along the way he's giving me this story about how he's on hard times and he's trying to get whatever he can for the guitar without being robbed. He's saying his bottom dollar was an even 1000 bucks.
We get to his truck and the instant I saw the case I knew what it was. I opened the case up, acted like I had never seen it, and just to make absolutely certain I was right I rolled it over and looked at the pot cover.
And right there on the plastic cover were the words "you're welcome! good luck!" and my initials.
I had installed a Jimmy Page wiring rig and a new set of Seth Lover pickups in that guitar for my friend a few years before.
So I asked the guy if it would be OK to walk back inside with it, plug it up and give it a test real quick. He said, "sure! let's do it!"
Needless to say, when I walked back in and held that Les Paul up, two people knew exactly what it was - the drummer (who was also friends with us both) and of course my buddy whose guitar it was.
They beat that guy to within an inch of his life.
But all's well that ends well. I still joke to this day that my buddy owes me a thousand dollars.