Every 30 seconds or so, a car is stolen somewhere in America. That adds up to about a million stolen vehicles every year. While modern cars are equipped with all sorts of thief-foils, owners of classic muscle cars are burdened with the knowledge that their car is just two crossed wires away from the chop shop. And with VIN swapping a popular past time, tracking down a stolen classic can be close to impossible.
But sometimes all it takes is a little research, and a lot of honesty, to put an old car back into the right hands. After following up on a hunch he had, a California man helped a New Jersey woman recover a ’69 Chevy Camaro that had been stolen from her 36 years ago, reports the Santa Maria Times.
Keith Williams bought what he thought was a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS on eBay. However, after some investigating, he found features inconsistent with a Camaro SS, and came to the conclusion that this was a clone car, rather than the real deal. This caused him to feel “uneasy” (probably because he spent a small fortune on a clone car) and he contacted the California Highway Patrol. After rebuffing Williams, the CHP finally got around to doing their job and discovered that the Camaro had been reported stolen 36 years ago…from New Jersey.
It turns out that this was actually a six-cylinder 1969 Camaro originally painted yellow (Williams later found traces of the yellow paint under the wheel wells.) The original owner initially thought the phone call from the CHP was a prank, and when convinced it was real, she wanted nothing to do with the “old car.” That is, until they informed her that it had undergone a total restoration and was now equipped with a 427 V8. She is now making arrangements to reclaim the car (which is sure to be worth a nice chunk o’ change) and Williams received a check from his insurance company to cover his costs. A happy ending to an unlikely story. If only the rest of the world were as honest as Keith Williams.