Three years ago, Dan Schmidt visited a garage sale for a retiree who was moving away. Marked for sale were multiple toolboxes the retiree claimed he had to get rid of. So, Schmidt made the seller an offer on the contents of the whole garage — establishing a new hobby for the criminal defense attorney: tool collecting.

Schmidt’s hobby soon turned into a passion, as he commonly found himself attending swap meets near his hometown of Indio, Calif. And, when Schmidt heard about a Klein Tools-sponsored contest rewarding the oldest pair of Klein pliers, he felt compelled to find the potential winning pair.