some people have all the luck to learn about a car that was left to someone else to sell after they die

A family friend, Diane, was the longtime caretaker for an older neighbor named Harvey. 

After Harvey’s wife died, Diane would go out and talk to him when Harvey would be cleaning his GTO.

When he passed away, he left her everything, the house, garage, and his 1968 GTO.

Diane wasn’t ready to sell the car initially, so Justin mentioned to her that one day he’d like to own the old Pontiac.

When Diane decided to sell, Justin got to see the GTO for the 1st time. With $7000 cash in hand, they swung open the door of the single-car garage in an old neighborhood in Chicago. He had no idea what to expect other than what Diane had told him: The 1968 GTO with a stick shift.

Justin said he was “beyond excited.” That excitement grew as they moved boxes and stuff out of the way and lifted a tarp off the body. There before him was a real GTO obviously untouched, wearing the original paint and needing minor bodywork.

The GTO had been sitting since 1979.

“We ended up towing the car over to my mechanic to get it checked out. It just needed a tune-up. With new spark plugs, new wires, a water pump, timing chain, and retuning the carburetor, the 400 started up and ran strong all the way to redline. The rear main seal is leaking and that is pretty much it.”

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1-owner-1968-pontiac-gto-comes-hiding-40-years/