3 weeks ago my dad decided that he wanted pinball machines. He never had them or played much (maybe at all) before, but he wanted them. For this story it helps to know that he's pretty well off, I mean, he's known to impulse buy new cars on his lunch break.
So, he asks me to bring him some down. I go to a local seller I frequent, and bought him an Addams Family and a BSD. I had planned to trade my Tee'd Off for a STTNG project, but my father said to sell him Tee'd Off... so he bought that one too. It took 2 trips totaling 12 hours driving time and likely another 12 hours moving, loading, unloading and setting them all up.
My brother calls the DAY AFTER I set them all up for him: 'Dad broke the pinball machine'.
It turned out that my father had a party, and a ball got stuck on Tee'd Off. I'm not sure where, when I had it, it was flawless (it was a TNT amusements restoration, so it was in perfect shape), but still, it happens. I guess some people were taking 'drunken' turns shaking/rocking the pin to get it unstuck... and it fell over.
It landed on my dad (edit: he actually wasn't the one rocking it), the playfield glass shattered, the topper went flying off, god knows what else happened on the inside. Lucky for him, he only bruised his leg.
Dad calls me: "I don't want these anymore, take them away". Well, it was more like, "Your mom and I talked, and she hated these to begin with, so we think it would be better if you took them".
Another 12 hour day, and they're no longer in his house.