Perhaps the strangest experience of my working life: When I was working as an independent auto damage appraiser we occasionally did some work for Lloyd's of London. This would have been in the 80's I believe. One day I got an assignment to look at a D Jag located at a body shop in of all places, Hayward California. I was very familiar with all the shops there but had never heard of this place. I drove out to the address, which turned out to be what appeared to be an abandoned building in a low key neighborhood with very little traffic. There were no signs or identification anywhere on the building. I knocked on the door and it was answered by a man speaking in hushed tones, who admitted me in to the place, where there were two other men speaking in equally hushed tones. There were no lights on in the building, no work going on, and there didn't appear to be any tools either. I believe the Jag was the only car in the barn sized building. They immediately informed me that I wasn't allowed to touch the car, or even get within touching range. I told them that I would have to photograph the odometer and VIN plate and one of them took the camera out of my hands and took the photos for me. If memory serves, the place was so dark I had to do quite a bit of the inspection using a flashlight. None of them offered me a business card or any other ID. When I left I half expected to look back and see that the building had disappeared. To this day I have no idea what the hell was going on.
