Quite a few years ago I was watching a few sprog pilots milling around the rear of a C210 while talking to the rostered pilot, who was conducting a daily inspection.
The left door was wide open as he walked around the back and lifted the elevator to the full up position, looking underneath it then lowering it down.
From where I was sitting I could see that the control lock was STILL IN, that realy got my attention, so I told the pilot what I saw. He laughed until I showed him, then was confused. Told the engineer who imediately inspected it, then admitted he removed the autopilot without adjusting the elevator cables afterwards, so they were just laying slack in the in the bottom of the empenage.
The realy strange part is, the same pilot had flown the same C210 daily for over a week after the engineer removed the autopilot and never noticed any difference?