When hunting for vintage scooters, always follow up on every lead, no matter how unlikely it may appear. Yeah, most of the time it's a wild goose chase, or a some old guy's moped. But every now and then you strike gold. You never know what it is until you see for yourself.
This particular find was described to me as "a rusty old thing, kinda tapered at the back . . . doesn't look like your Vespa there." Lo and behold, it turned out to be a 1948 Salsbury. Rusty, damaged, missing engine, but an honest-to-goodness holy grail of American scooters - a Salsbury Model 48, sitting quietly in the woods behind an abandoned house.
Sadly, this tale doesn't have a happy ending. What happened next? Loaded it on my truck. Cops came; said I was trespassing; had to unload it. Tracked down the property owner. He told me in no uncertain terms that he didn't want me (or anyone) on the property. Time goes by; I approach the property owner again; he had sold the property; I track down the new property owner. He gives his blessing for me to remove the old rusty thing (also tells me if the cops show up tell them to call him so he can confirm he gave permission to me); I drive over to pick it up and it's GONE. Scrapped, most likely.
But hey, I owned a Salsbury for 5 whole minutes! I'll find another someday. And until it does, I follow up on every lead.