https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2019/08/08/man-mustang-reunited-17-years-after-selling-it/1944055001/
TL;DR
17 years later, a man and his Mustang are reunited
Dearborn — Wesley Ryan sold his 1993 Mustang GT 17 years ago to pay for his wife's cancer treatment. On Thursday, with wife, Laura in the passenger seat, he started up the engine of that very car in front of Ford World Headquarters and started to cry.
"I thought she was gone," Ryan, a 57-year-old San Antonio resident, said of the car. "I let her go."
Ryan's son and daughter, Jake, 26, and Jeni, 22, had tracked the car down an hour north of San Antonio, Texas, two years ago. Jake haggled with the seller before they finally agreed on a price in September. The title of the car their father let go 17 years ago was still in their parents' name, Jake said. It seemed like fate, even if the car needed thousands of dollars in repairs.
Jake had been ready to work on the car himself. He and his dad thought it would take about five years to do all the work.
That's when Ford stepped in.
People at Ford, including Executive Chairman Bill Ford, had seen national press coverage last fall when Ryan's kids first gave him the car. The automaker contacted the family late last year and told the Ryans that it wanted to help fix the car.