I figured there had to be a pretty good story that went with this... So I did a search and came up with this:
My Engine Swap Saga Continues...
IMHO, this guy didn't exactly do a lot to get himself out of the problem. The shop had the car, not just the engine, the whole car, for over two years for a simple engine rebuild. Looks like there was one engine that disappeared around the one year mark. I didn't bother to search for that.
Seems to me that a month or so into the project would have had enough red flags going off that most folks with common sense would have been calling a tow truck to bring it home.
I'm not downplaying the mechanic's dishonesty here... but you have to have some responsibility to yourself not to be a victim for too long.