It’s a common pipe dream to hunt down the collectible cars for your spouse from their childhood, and it rarely ever happens that way, but it does happen. Jeff Penrod is one of the lucky few who did manage to successfully get his Mustang back, thanks to a very good wife.
The 1968 Ford Mustang in question was actually promised to him, so you might be losing the warm and fuzzies about mom and dad at this point. They used it as leverage to get Jeff to get all As in school, and when that failed to happen, the pony got the boot.
“My dad was one of those people who and still is that if he says something he means it and that was the rule; I had to hold straight A’s, which I was more than capable of doing and it wasn’t like I was being asked to do something absurd,” Penrod told The Flint Journal. “I was more than capable of holding straight A’s. I just was a teenage kid. I didn’t really care what someone else told me. I was going to do what I wanted to do.”
Jeff kept the spare key to the Mustang, and when he started dating Brianna, his now wife, she asked him about it. He told her the story about the Mustang that got away, and the promise he broke to his parents that caused the car to be sold. After hearing about it, Brianna was on a mission to buy it back for their 10 year anniversary, in 2022.
Three months ago, she met a savings milestone goal to buy the car back, without Jeff knowing. She also got his dad involved, who had contacts to run the plates to hunt it down. When the then owner was ready to sell it, he called up Jeff’s dad, and arrangements were made to buy it back.
Brianna made arrangements for Jeff to get the car back on father’s day, so perfect timing!
“When I walked outside there sitting in the driveway is the car I’ve been looking for or wanting back for 23 years,” Jeff Penrod said.
