In a manner of speaking.
It was my brother-in-law's car, (well before he was officially my brother in
law anyway) and it took many, many years before I managed to get the (albeit
brief) explanation out of him.
It started after he made changes in the drive train ratio as well as wheel
sizes that threw the existing speedo so far out it was useless. He
commissioned me to build a digital speedo, so I did, with a magnet on the
drive shaft (which is where all this started).
And that's where it stood, till about six months later where he said it
"stopped working".
A little casual observation noted the metal arm the pickup sensor was on,
was mangled beyond recognition, the cable was pulled apart, and of course, the
pickup was no longer near the magnet anyway.
It didn't look like it bottomed out anywhere (the likely problem), so I was
at a loss as to what could do this type of damage. So I asked.
A bit of vague non-descript running over a plastic bag resulted.
Yeah, I didn't believe that either, and it was obvious he was trying to hide
something. I stopped caring about what did the damage, and instead was now
more interested in why he was being so evasive.
Fast forward many years, where after repeated questioning, the subject
eventually let up: In an attempt to reduce noise coming in around the
gearstick cavity, he stuffed (his words) "a rubber doll" in the hole.
Said "rubber doll" came loose, fell down, wrapped around the driveshaft,
flapping around killing the magnetic pickup, where it left him stranded by the
side of the road till he cut it loose with a knife.
To this day, he still hasn't been clear on the _exact_ nature of the type of
"rubber doll", other than it used to belong to his brother. Of course...
And we still rib him about it every so often.