Lost a nice Lennox Hackmaster hacksaw, left it above a drop ceiling in Pennsylvania (two states away) doing travelling network power and data cabling.
Went back to the same ceiling 2 or so years later and popped the same ceiling tile for another job. There was my Lennox Hackmaster. Not sure if I knew which site had my saw in the ceiling. I do know that when I went back to the site I was not expecting to get my saw back.
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Lost a nice SK 3/8 ratchet that was part of the green box SK 3/8" drive set. Paid $47 for the entire green box SK 3/8 set when it was imprinted on the box 75th anniversary (let me tell you I beat the crap out of them including regular impact driving duty and they are great sockets). They sell the same set today imprinted on the box as 100th anniversary set for like $180.
Two years later I was back at the brick plant nosing around their boneyard again for parts to build something, everything is covered in 1 1/2" moon dust clay like talcum powder, spotting for more build materials in an inaccessible spot, and there was my SK 3/8 ratchet with long extension and a socket on it. It had fallen out of the Carhartt B01 leg pocket. Still have the complete set with no replacements and it is still the daily driver.
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Lost my first Fluke 87 when it was still pretty new and because of the routine at the time, doing 30 hrs weekly just on the highways, I had no idea where it could be, just that it was gone. Before I gave up on it I started cleaning the truck. It had to be there I could not afford to replace it. At first I just started taking stuff out of the truck but as I dug deeper stuff was flying out of the truck landing 20 or 30 ft away. Just heaving everything to get my eyes back on the Fluke 87. Something left the truck that way and flew 25 ft right through a window on the house.
Eventually I had to come to the conclusion it was not in the truck and was gone. I was resigned to the loss.
Three days later I get a call out of the blue. Maintenance man calls from a school I had wired the boilers for, low winning bid job, half way across the state. He says I got your meter and I say you got it and he says I got it.
Then he tells me the story, he climbed up on his new boilers to look around and finds this nice looking meter. He is playing around with it thinking it is his now and that's that. But as he is playing around with his new toy Fluke 87 he sees it is magic marked with (my name) and phone number. He hesitates but eventually calls the numbe hoping no one will answer and it will be truly his. I did answer the call and talking to him, I got the vibe he was disappointed that he could not keep the meter. He was like 'are you sure you're going to drive all the way back here for it' (OMG pal, never stand between a contractor and his dinner).
I got that Fluke back and still have it.
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One more comes to mind which I have told here before. Short version was I put the word out that if I got my father's Hilti TE (big one drives a six inch hole saw), nothing more would ever be said about it and I would not (). I got that drill and bits set back but the guy making the exchange started to speak. I stopped him right there and told him 'I get the drill back and nothing would be said, take that deal'.