Police Recover Stolen Car - After 20 YEARS

[matcom]

<snip>

NEW YORK (AP) -- Auto thieves be warned: New York police won't give up the chase -- even if it takes 20 years.

On Monday, police said they arrested Scott Kenny, 46, in connection with the May 1983 theft of an automobile.

Twenty years ago, the 1968 Mercury Cougar was reported stolen from a home. Fast forward two decades to Nov. 19, 2003, when a Newsday ad appeared advertising the car.

A retired New York City police sergeant saw the ad and went to check the auto out, taking pictures to send to a retired detective who's a Mercury Cougar enthusiast.

The retired detective saw the car's vehicle identification number in one of the photos and matched it to the registration of a car he once lost to auto thieves 20 years ago: a 1968 Mercury Cougar.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2003/12/02/police_recover_stolen_car_after_20_years/

[Turbineguy]

1. Gee, I wish my Mom had been that lucky

She got her Cougar back in two weeks!

[GOPisEvil]

2. Wow!

Note to car thieves: don't steal classics! The community of owners is small!

But a 1968 Cougar...wow...I'd love to own one of those. :-)

[Robb]

8. I think my Mom had one...

...I seem to remember sequentially-blinking tail lights? :shrug:

[LiberalVoice]

3. What kind of a jackass would put the VIN number in a sale pic?

[Garage Queen]

4. But, he wasn't the guy who stole the car

If I'm reading the article correctly, he received the car from a family member. So...why they're arresting HIM is a bit confusing to me at this point.

Seems to me that maybe (just MAYBE) he didn't know the car was stolen and thus felt free to post the VIN in the ad. Strange, yes, but is that a common practise in the world of Classic Cars? Maybe another DU'er can help us out.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Common practice with a lot of classic/collectible autos, actually.

Number being within a certain range can make it more valuable, since certain option packages/features were only available within a certain range, etc. Also, "matching numbers" increase the value (VIN matches numbers stamped on engine block, intake manifold, transmission and differential). So, it's not an uncommon practice.

[GOPisEvil]

6. Yes, it's very common.

From the VIN, a serious buyer can tell certain items about the vehicle, such as whether the engine advertised is orignal or replaced, whether the car has been repainted another color, etc...

[kcwayne]

7. An honest seller would do this

so that you can use CarFax to look up the vehicle history. The last car I bought I used this service to find out how many title changes had occurred and if there were any accident reports from the police files. In this case, it would show that the car had been stolen as well.