Stolen Corvette back after 37 years
January 18, 2006
LOS ANGELES: A Corvette sports car stolen 37 years ago from a New York parking garage has been recovered in California and will be returned to its original owner.
The 1968 muscle car was identified as stolen as it was being loaded on to a container ship for Sweden last November, US Department of Homeland Security spokesman Mike Fleming said.
Alan Poster, who now lives in California, was a 26-year-old guitar salesman recovering from a divorce when he bought the blue Corvette in 1968 for $US6000. The car was stolen on January 22, 1969.
Since Mr Poster's insurance at the time did not cover the Corvette's theft and he was never compensated, he is entitled to get it back.
Mr Poster, 63, a company president who drives a Mercedes, cannot believe that his beloved Corvette will be returned to him today.
"I stand in the shower going, 'Why me?' Has anything like this ever happened to you?" he told The New York Times.
The car had recently been bought for $US10,000 ($13,200) by a man in Sweden who was unaware it had been stolen nearly four decades earlier, Mr Fleming said.
The Corvette, which was originally painted blue with a matching interior, is now silver with a red interior. It is missing the petrol tank, has a new engine and transmission and no longer runs, Mr Fleming said.
California Highway Patrol officer Joe Zizi said investigators had determined the Swedish man purchased the car from a man in Texas, who in turn bought it from someone in New Mexico.
None of them was involved in the theft or aware it had been stolen, Mr Zizi said.
He said that after the Corvette was found to be a stolen car, detectives in New York were contacted and spent a month sifting through about 10,000 archived stolen car reports to find the original owner.
If the stolen report had not been found by January 1, the car would have been shipped to Sweden.
Reuters
Link Here
LOS ANGELES: A Corvette sports car stolen 37 years ago from a New York parking garage has been recovered in California and will be returned to its original owner.
The 1968 muscle car was identified as stolen as it was being loaded on to a container ship for Sweden last November, US Department of Homeland Security spokesman Mike Fleming said.
Alan Poster, who now lives in California, was a 26-year-old guitar salesman recovering from a divorce when he bought the blue Corvette in 1968 for $US6000. The car was stolen on January 22, 1969.
Since Mr Poster's insurance at the time did not cover the Corvette's theft and he was never compensated, he is entitled to get it back.
Mr Poster, 63, a company president who drives a Mercedes, cannot believe that his beloved Corvette will be returned to him today.
"I stand in the shower going, 'Why me?' Has anything like this ever happened to you?" he told The New York Times.
The car had recently been bought for $US10,000 ($13,200) by a man in Sweden who was unaware it had been stolen nearly four decades earlier, Mr Fleming said.
The Corvette, which was originally painted blue with a matching interior, is now silver with a red interior. It is missing the petrol tank, has a new engine and transmission and no longer runs, Mr Fleming said.
California Highway Patrol officer Joe Zizi said investigators had determined the Swedish man purchased the car from a man in Texas, who in turn bought it from someone in New Mexico.
None of them was involved in the theft or aware it had been stolen, Mr Zizi said.
He said that after the Corvette was found to be a stolen car, detectives in New York were contacted and spent a month sifting through about 10,000 archived stolen car reports to find the original owner.
If the stolen report had not been found by January 1, the car would have been shipped to Sweden.
Reuters
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 6:56 PM
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