Some background before we begin. I am a huge car enthusiast whose very proud of my family heritage (mainly French and Italian) and have been to Europe a few times to be familiar with the cars there. That said, lets begin.

It's about 2015ish, and I'm at work at my local outlet mall working at a higher end audio brand. It's a mall that sees a TON of both local and international traffic, as there is an international airport about 10 miles away with busses that run direct to it from the airport - kinda legit when you think about it.

We just started selling a brand new Bluetooth speaker that had plenty of hype behind it and was becoming quite popular as we were entering the summer months because of its loudness and outdoor usability. Enter Air Force Vet (now called AFV)

Me: Hi, welcome to the XXXX store, how can i help you?

AFV: well... I have an odd request.

Me: What do you need? (heard this line before, or so i thought)

AFV: Well... i need to take a product outside. you have a floor model i can take?

Me, mildly startled: What do you mean outside? Our products can't leave our sales floor.

This gets the attention of my Store Manager, who now has his head turned to listen in on the conversation

AFV: Well, i need to see if something fits... its a tight space...

Mind you, this gentleman is older, maybe mid 50's into early 60's. From his demeanor, i could tell that even he knew this was highly irregular to ask to take a product out of the store floor without purchasing, but I could also tell he was an honest sort of guy.

SM (store manager): (walking over) what are you trying to do sir?

AFV: I heard about this new speaker of yours and wanted to see if it fit in a space in my car. it doesn't have a stereo, and this speaker looks like it could fit perfectly in this space.

Now my manager knows my affinity for cars, so when i looked at him knowingly and longingly, he gave the approval to go outside with the product and was basically told to guard the unit with my life. As we walked out to the guys car, we started talking back and forth.

Turns out, he is an AFV from serving for nearly 20yrs at airbases in Germany and Italy. He served during the 70's-90's and lived there for a small while with his wife in Italy. They returned only recently and decided to bring his beloved car back from Italy with him.

The Car? A beautiful all original 1970's Fiat 500 in a glorious 2 tone red on black. It had been refitted with a power outlet to run a small fan (car was never built with AC or anything powered) with the original leather top as the only other source of fresh air. And it was tiny!

After discussing the car, we promptly looked in the center. Low and behold, the "space" was a near exact fit, with a power outlet to charge the speaker with right there. Car never had a radio in it to begin with, so this would be a huge upgrade over the deafening sound of tiny Italian engine noises.

We give it a test right there in the lot in the car. AFV was relatively satisfied, but after all the excitement over seeing and being in this car, I wanted to seal the sale. I convinced him to start the car ( at this point we were pretty chummy) so we could test the speaker with the native car sounds and see if the speaker could outdo the noise. Then, HE gets really committed. "buckle in, lets go for a ride"

Without question, I buckled in. Next thing I know, we are now scooting around the massive parking lot of my outlet mall doing nearly 40-50mph (the top speed of the Fiat) blasting the Eagles at full volume without any issues hearing the music. I'm having a blast, loving every second of not only chilling with this incredibly nice gentleman, but also getting PAID to be in this car with AFV.

About 10 minutes of racecar noises and receipts later, he bought not only the speaker, but every optional item we had for it, minus a car charger since he had the power outlet already in his car.

Easily the coolest day at work EVER, and one of the best customers I ever had.