The Billionaire Who Bought an Invisible Car

In 1999, Leonardo Caprice opened a “luxury garage” in downtown Manhattan with a pitch straight out of a cartoon: the world’s first invisible car. For $10 million, he claimed, you could own a vehicle so advanced that light refused to touch it. Enter Arthur Pendleton, a billionaire so insulated from reality he once bought an island because its shape made him laugh on a map. Arthur bought the invisible car on the spot.

For a week he “drove” it around Beverly Hills, making engine noises and yelling at traffic lights that couldn’t see him. Things went from ridiculous to legendary when he filed a police report claiming his invisible car had been stolen from an invisible parking space he painted himself. By the time anyone caught on, Leonardo was relaxing in the Bahamas—probably selling invisible yachts—while Arthur still insists he owns the rare ...