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37 years later! With a better motor no less! What a stange story. Quote:
Jan. 17, 2006 â?? Alan Poster's Corvette was a brand new 1968 blue-on-blue classic driving machine when it vanished 37 years ago. Now he's been reunited with his former dream car.
The Corvette was stolen from a New York garage on Jan. 22, 1969. In November the car was identified as stolen as it was being loaded onto a container ship bound for Sweden, said U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Mike Fleming.
The car had recently been purchased for $10,000 by a man in Sweden who was not aware it had been stolen nearly four decades earlier, Fleming said. Since Poster's insurance at the time did not cover the car's theft and he was never compensated, he is entitled to get it back.
"This is a miracle," Poster said when law enforcement officials told him that his car had been recovered. He saw his car today for the first time in 37 years at a media briefing held at a Customs and Border Patrol warehouse in Carson, Calif.
"He's very excited about it," Fleming said, adding that Poster had since moved to Petaluma, Calif., and had given up hope long ago of seeing the car again.
A Strange Journey
Poster had owned the car only for two-and-a-half months when it was stolen from the garage â?? one of nearly 80,000 stolen cars in New York City that year.
But he'd already managed to have some fun with his hot wheels when he was a 26-year-old guitar salesman. "I remember driving it through the tunnel in Manhattan and some guy wanted to race me," he said, "and I knew he was dirt."
The New York Police Department played a big role in the Corvette's recovery. After the Customs and Border Patrol contacted the department, Det. William Heiser scoured the department's records room and dug in to the coldest stolen car case of his career.
"We went through about 5,000 records over the course of four days here to locate this report," Heiser said, which led them to Poster.
When detectives called, Poster didn't believe it was actually the NYPD. "He was pretty surprised," Det. Cliff Bieder said. "I think he thought it was a joke at first."
No one knows where the Corvette has been all this time. It was apparently never registered or insured, or the vehicle identification number would have revealed it had been stolen.
The car is now silver with a red interior, according to Customs and Border Patrol. The original 327-cubic-inch engine has been replaced by a 454 big block Chevy engine. The car has a stolen automatic transmission that wasn't introduced until the mid-1980s, and the gas tank is missing. The car's classic design, however, has survived.
Today the car that cost $6,000 in 1968 is a classic. Similar models are auctioned on Web sites for $50,000 to $100,000. But Poster said his Corvette is not for sale.
"I plan to restore it and keep it," he said.
He also plans to give it to another eager young driver with the same name â?? his teenage daughter.
99 Contour Sport SE MTX
KKM filter, B&M shifter
No res, BAT kit
Green car silver hood (because silver is faster)
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 3,637
Hard-core CEG\'er
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He is giving it to his daughter? what a moron, that car is dead.
99 TRed Contour SVT # 1853 out of 2760
230.2 WHP @ 6500
237.0 WTR @ 2250
Originally posted by MxRacer:
Originally posted by RawBurt:
I'll be keeping it to myself, until the time comes. It'll be hard to find. 
much like your weiner.
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Hard-core CEG'er
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It should have stayed stolen if he plans on forking it over to ANY teenager. Insta-scrap metal... 
JaTo
e-Tough Guy
Missouri City, TX
99 Contour SVT
#143/2760
00 Corvette Coupe
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 238
CEG\'er
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CEG\'er
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Posts: 238 |
Originally posted by JaTo:
It should have stayed stolen if he plans on forking it over to ANY teenager.
Insta-scrap metal...
more like insta-scrap metal/fiberglass
Mike C
T-Red 99 csvt #490 No longer a dailer driver
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Joined: May 2004
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Originally posted by svt490:
Originally posted by JaTo:
It should have stayed stolen if he plans on forking it over to ANY teenager.
Insta-scrap metal...
more like insta-scrap metal/fiberglass/idiot teenager
Fixed
99 TRed Contour SVT # 1853 out of 2760
230.2 WHP @ 6500
237.0 WTR @ 2250
Originally posted by MxRacer:
Originally posted by RawBurt:
I'll be keeping it to myself, until the time comes. It'll be hard to find.
much like your weiner.
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 9,065
Hard-core CEG'er
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He's gonna lose a car and a teenage daughter 
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1997 Civic CX (lsvtec,el frontend,fast, nuff said)
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Hard-core CEG\'er
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Quote:
Similar models are auctioned on Web sites for $50,000 to $100,000.
 Stock ones with matching numbers in mint condition might go for that, but once he replaces the tranny this one will simply be a nice, restified driver worth maybe $25K.
E0 #36
'95 Ranger
'82 Honda CX500
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It's cool that he got it back , but it'd be worth WAY more in all-original condition  . Not that it really matters to him at this point  .
~~~~~~~ Phil
Black & Tan 2000 SVT Contour #2137 of 2150
35,000 miles & counting !
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Posts: 6,106
Addicted CEG\'er
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The guy never planned to see the car again. Sounds like he's in his 50's, and could care less about getting his money out of the car. Why not pass it on to his daughter? Teenager or not, I'm guessing it still won't be a daily driver.
Mark
2000 Black CSVT
3.0L Hybrid - 206fwhp & 195fwtq
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