Zero Turn Mower

Back in the late 60s my neighbor Mr. Madsen was a bodyman and a mechanic for Anderson Cadillac in Mpls.... I used to hang out and watch him work on projects.
One such project was a lawn mower.... a riding lawn mower.... one with 2 sticks to steer it ! I watched him build every aspect of it . Diamond plate deck , 10 hp Tecumseh , 4 blade adjutable cutting deck , boggy wheels up front and balloon wheels in back.
It was the coolest mower I had ever seen !

Some years later he told me someone stole his design and patented it. It sounded kind of conspiracy like ...which I thought odd because he was such a straight shooter and honorable man.

7-8 years later I start seeing zero turn mowers that looked just like the one he built many years before.
Hmmmm ... maybe ?