Happy But Sad
Score one for those know-it-alls who hang around classic car shows. An eagle-eyed enthusiast with a keen attention to detail at a recent gathering in the northern California town of Red Bluff was checking out a 1964 Corvette when he noticed the vehicle identification number (VIN) was for a different model, evidence that the car was once stolen.
The Red Bluff Daily News reports that the owner then brought it to the local California Highway Patrol to get it checked out. Sure enough, the VIN was originally from an Impala, while another number on the car matched that of a 1964 Corvette that was reported stolen down in Anaheim…in 1976. Back in September 1976, a woman living in Anaheim, California had her C2 Corvette stolen. At the time, the police were unable to track the car down, and she believed her car was gone forever.
In 2016, an owner took their 1964 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to a car show where someone pointed out that the car’s VIN didn’t actually belong to a Corvette, but rather from a 1964 Impala. Upon further investigation, and using one of the hidden VINs, an officer was able to verify with the National Insurance Crime Bureau that the car had been stolen.
The officer then contacted Anaheim PD and advised them of the situation. They then located the victim from 1976, who is currently living in Arizona, and told her that her car was found. Four decades after it was originally stolen, the stolen Corvette is back home. Sadly, the man who the car was recovered from had owned the car since his wife gave it to him in 1987 and dealership she bought it from is now out of business.
So while it’s great to see the original owner get her car back, the fact that it was found with a family that had owned it for nearly 20 years makes this story more bittersweet than anything else.
The unidentified man had no idea, having been given the car as a gift by his wife in 1987, who bought it from a dealer that’s now out of business. Some more sleuthing by the police, which included digging into the Anaheim PD’s ancient microfiche records, turned up the name of the original owner, Modesto Flemming, who had since relocated to Arizona.
The police were able to reach out to Flemming, and she made the trip to Red Bluff to retrieve the car she never thought she’d see again, which happens to be in great condition and is probably worth $50,000 or more today.
A police spokesperson told FoxNews.com that the recent owner and his wife aren’t in any trouble, as they were unwitting parties after the crime, but didn’t know what if any compensation they received from insurance, or otherwise, for having to return the car.
