The Mythical 7 Cylinder V8

Has anyone heard of this story? It's about a new Chevy(some say it was a corvette)that came in for repair because of a minor vibration. The mechanic working on it found that one of the 8 cylinders was misfiring because the piston and rod was not there, like it was not put in from the factory. Rumor has it that the customer never fixed the issue and continued driving the car for years, which would mean even with a connecting rod missing the engine still had good enough oil pressure.

This story has been told to me multiple times by multiple now old timers. Some say that one of the cylinders in the block was just blank and some say it was not. Another rumor is that it was a test from GM for the dealers to make sure that they are properly doing inspections on the cars before they are sold. I have heard multiple versions and ideas of this myth and it's definitely not modern, possibly from the 80's, which may be why it was never documented online.

What do yall think? Has anyone heard of anything like this before?