JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Watto's Junk Yard => Topic started by: Phrubruh on April 29, 2015, 11:00 PM
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The day I was born, my dad when out and bought a '67 Shelby Cobra. He figured my mom was occupied at the moment giving birth and could say no to it. He bought it to work on it and to race it. My first car ride was in that car. About ten months later the car was stolen from our locked garage in board day light. My dad only put on 700 miles in that time since it was always in the shop.
Last month, my dad was at South Coast Corvette talking to the owner of the shop about that Cobra he had 45 years ago. He told him that he had still had the title, registration, vin number and lots of documentation on the car. They decided to look the car up in the Cobra registry just for fun. It turned out the car was in there!!! It seems the car was Carmel, California. The owner of South Coast Corvette has been friends with my dad for almost fifty years and said he would help get the car back. They hired a private investigator to go find the car.
Today, the PI gave my dad a call and said he found the car and will be picking it up next week and bringing it back to the police. We can then pick it up in LA. The story is still unfolding.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/phruby/Cars/51_zpse4bssvzl.jpg)
My dad and me
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/phruby/Cars/91_zpsquijzxmt.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/phruby/Cars/90_zpsilek98lt.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/phruby/Cars/92_zps00ses5fs.jpg)
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That's awesome... I hope it's in decent shape when you get it back Paul.
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Awesome story! Best of luck, I hope that everything works out and it's in mint condition when you get it.
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So cool! I a not a car person at all. I didn't own one until I owned "half" my wife's after we got married, BUT the vintage Cobras have always been a car to get me drooling. Awesome.
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Wow - that's just ridiculous. That's a million dollar car these days!
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Awesome story. Can't wait to hear more.
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Wow - that's just ridiculous. That's a million dollar car these days!
I can only imagine how the guy on the other end of this deal is going to feel about it... would be interesting to know how long they have had it, where/when they got it, etc.
Imagine taking care of that car for 40+ years only to have someone show up after all this time and take it from you because it was stolen 40+ yearsa ago. :(
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Good lord! 40+ years & found. Hope it all works out & noting has been replaced & wonder what the mileage is now. Please keep us posted & with pics of the return. Wowzers!
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I can only imagine how the guy on the other end of this deal is going to feel about it... would be interesting to know how long they have had it, where/when they got it, etc.
Imagine taking care of that car for 40+ years only to have someone show up after all this time and take it from you because it was stolen 40+ yearsa ago. :(
I was thinking the same thing. Is the current "owner" completely hosed? Does his insurance cover this sort of situation?
Does Paul's dad have to pay back the insurance company that paid him out 40 years ago?
Amazing story! Let us know how it ends!
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Every situation like this I ever read or heard of, the owner is basically hosed. Though how long they owned it tends to vary of course. Insurance covering it seems to depend how your policy is worded regarding theft. It's weird.
I have actually read several stories like this just different cars. I never saw it end well for the guy who currently owns it though.
It could also be that the car is in bad shape. Shelby frames sell for a decent amount of course though haha. But yeah there could be little left of the car but the body and frame. I know this guy who got a 65 fastback he owned back in a similar story but while it was mostly complete it was rotted on the frame n floor pans and the engine was seized. :(
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Pretty awesome story... looking forward to seeing how it turns out for you!
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Great story. Congratulations on finding this. What will you do with it once you have it?
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It is LITERALLY a million-dollar car. I'd drive around the block once, then straight to the auction block. 8)
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My dad paid $3000 cash for the car originally in '69. He never insured it since it was always in the shop being worked on. The guy that has it now is a collector so it's most likely cherry.
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That's awesome Paul! Hope to see some pictures soon!
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The thieves were actually watching the car for several days and new exactly where it was and when to grab it. It was stolen in broad day light right from our home garage that had a expensive dead bolt lock on it. Odds are the thieves worked on the car at the shop and knew the address of the car. They waited until no one was home, cut the lock and drove the car out. Interesting thing about Shelby Cobras is that Ford only made five ignition keys for it. It was very easy back then to get one or make a copy of the key especially if you have been working on the car all day.
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The older Fords only need a 3' piece of wire to turn on. That's how I would turn on my 68 Mustangs. sometimes ;)
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That is an awesome story! I'd love to see some pics of the car in it's current condition when it finally gets recovered.
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Any update on how this turned out?
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The detective keeps getting pulled to other police work and hasn't gotten a chance to go up north yet. I'll let you know when I find out something.
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Here is the latest. The police have gone up and positively IDed the car. They also found the car has stolen plates on it. The LA district attorney is working on a court order. Once the court order is finished in a couple of days, the car will be impound and the current "owner" arrested.
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See if you can get video of that! :D
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Works out nice that the current "owner" is a douche and not some average guy who thinks he has legitimate ownership
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This story just gets more and more interesting. When we started down this path I had some measure of sympathy for the current owner, and the possibility that he might have been one of a string of owners of this car who didn't know that it was stolen. But now that it's clear that the vehicle has stolen plated any sense of sympathy for this guy just flew out the window, and the stolen plates make it seem that much more likely that he knew the car had been stolen.
In related news, check this out. It's the story of a Corvette that was stolen in 1972 and just got recovered. The parallels between this story and the Shelby are kind of remarkable, although I think the Shelby Cobra is a much, much cooler car.
http://www.today.com/news/woman-reunited-car-43-years-after-it-was-stolen-t24936
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That was an interesting story about the '72 Corvette returned after 43 years. Makes you wonder how a teenager affords a 28K car (in todays money). The car is worth about the same as she bought it for if it has low miles and in great condition. I wonder why the insurance company gave her the car instead of selling it at auction. It's their right to recover the money.
That won't happen in this case since the car was bought with cash and never insured because it was always being worked on.
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Another update. We found the reason the DA needs to get a court order is because the "owner" and the town sheriff are friends so they are trying to make it hard. That shouldn't be a problem though. Just delays it a little. Also, he has 'owned' the car since '72 and registered it as a '72 Ford Mustang. It's unknown where he got the stolen plates. The only thing that is from a Mustang is the gear shift that was put in backwards.
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The '72 Mustang looks nothing like a '67 Cobra. Did this guy drive the car since '72 and never get a ticket or get pulled over, I mean damn that car is fast.
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This is a current picture of the car. We have started litigation to get the car back. Pretty huh?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v308/phruby/IMG_0426_2_zpszlh1ys6w.jpg)
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Gorgeous.
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Good lord! That is a beauty!
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Wow! Calling that car gorgeous is an understatement.
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Non-woman speaking it doesn't get any more beautiful
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Nice man! Congrats. :D
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Registered as a Mustang? Yeah, no. Beautiful car. :o
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Looks good Paul! Thanks for the update.
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Wow that is a nice looking ride.
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So have things moved forward at all?
The reason I ask is because a friend of mine just posted a photo of an almost identical Shelby Cobra that's up for sale.
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Suing someone takes time.
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I'm just hoping this Shelby on Instagram isn't the same one (https://instagram.com/p/6BQJ6dGp1MPzlVetkdQ-9lLqaYl2w5-UEriiQ0/?taken-by=fobstopper) that you're trying to recover.
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I'm just hoping this Shelby on Instagram isn't the same one (https://instagram.com/p/6BQJ6dGp1MPzlVetkdQ-9lLqaYl2w5-UEriiQ0/?taken-by=fobstopper) that you're trying to recover.
Sorry, this page isn't available.
The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.
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I'm not a lawyer, but if it is, I think it would be easy enough to get a judge to issue an injunction to prohibit its sale while the litigation is ongoing. You'd have to be a pretty dumb mofo to think you could just sell the car that you know isn't yours. That would add all sorts of charges and damages to the suit(s).
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If that ad includes the car's number, let me know what it is. Technically, we shouldn't have to go through all of this legal crap according to the police but this guy is playing politics. The local sheriff is a buddy of this guy and won't let the police impound the car. Not sure how legal that is or not. The DA says we have to go this direction. Basically justice delayed is justice denied.
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I'm not sure if our car is considered semi-competition or not but here is a link to one that sold recently for over two million at auction. I know the car isn't a Super Snake which goes for a lot more.
http://www.rmsothebys.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1071812 (http://www.rmsothebys.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1071812)
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I'm just hoping this Shelby on Instagram isn't the same one (https://instagram.com/p/6BQJ6dGp1MPzlVetkdQ-9lLqaYl2w5-UEriiQ0/?taken-by=fobstopper) that you're trying to recover.
Sorry, this page isn't available.
The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.
You probably need an Instagram account to view that.
The car in that link is located on the east coast, btw. Probably not the same Shelby.
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Being logged in didn't make any difference for me...
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Not many original colors to pick on Shelbys iirc so they do tend to have some frequent similarity... Like red mustangs etc.
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Actually, red isn't that common in the 60's Mustang.
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A month ago, we filed a lawsuit against the current "owner" of the car. He had thirty days to respond and has not. The case was rock solid against him. That means the car is ours. Our lawyer is writing up a court order for the judge to sign to seize the car. We found he has illegally moved it but we know were the car's location is now.
We also found out that there are three LA Police lieutenants that are currently charged with purchasing and selling stolen cars. One has already stepped down from his position. It seems this goes back many years. Of those three, one of them is the police lieutenant that has been blocking the seizer of our car for the last five months. ;D
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Thanks for updating... this is a fascinating story to follow!
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Woohoo! Take that crooked cops!
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This is like live-action Corvette Summer.
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Except I'm not living in a van with Annie Potts.
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Great update! I hope you get it resolved soon and without much hassle. I also hope that the guy who has it now doesn't trash it before you can get it back.
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Great update! I hope you get it resolved soon and without much hassle. I also hope that the guy who has it now doesn't trash it before you can get it back.
I wouldn't worry about that much. If he trashes it, he'd be liable for damages. It's one thing to lose your million-dollar stolen car. It's another thing to have to pay to repair a million-dollar car you intentionally damaged.
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Never underestimate the pettiness of some people.
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Other than cosmetic, were there any known issues mechanically with the car? Was there any mechanical diagnosis at all? There's a lot more you can do that key a car, to make it basically a lawn deco. I'd be more worried about that, honestly. Especially if mechanical soundness of the vehicle isn't established.
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From what we hear the car isn't running but that doesn't mean much. It could just have a dead battery. This car is worth a lot working or not. The car is so simple that wouldn't take much to get it running again. Besides that is half the fun with the car. When the police first showed up, pictures of the car were taken of it. Any damage to the car he is accountable for. We are considering doing a second law suit against the "thief" in delaying the seizure of the car for about $50K in damages. We would like the police lieutenant punished (fired) for delaying justice for no good reason. They are playing politics for delay tactics.
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The thief has asked for a change of venue for the trail. He wants to move it to the county were he illegally moved the car to. We figure this is so he can brib the one judge in that court. We are countering with a move to San Francisco. We are looking for a place where we can get a fair trail. The court order seizure doc has been written up. It just needs the judge's signature.
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Good lord this is an epic unending line of horse **** for you man.
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Good lord this is an epic unending line of horse **** for you man.
Seriously. Can you threaten to sue for the distress caused by all the manipulation from this guy or added delays in getting a speedy trial?
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We can and will seek damages due to this. We are also looking at raising a complaint to the city in order to have the police lieutenant fired.
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Talk to your lawyer about going to the local media about this. Make these ******** famous!
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Any updates?
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Nothing right now that I can say.
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I'm expecting to see something on an upcoming episode of Airplane Repo. They sometimes steal back cars too. :D
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Can you file a restraining order to stop him from going to see the car?
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Saw this story and this thread was all I could think about. (http://gearheads.org/owner-recovers-her-stolen-corvette-40-years-later/)
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Yeah - any updates on the Shelby?
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The thief has been fighting pretty hard over keeping the car with lots of delay tactics designed to cost lots of money. We hear the other side has spent on lawyer fees close to 100K last year. We finally had pretrial hearings back in September so the law suite is still alive. We are trying to get the hearing scheduled quickly but all of this costs a lot of money. It's possible we can get them to settle before trial but it seems unlikely until the day we go to court. He loses everything at that point. This is in a different league than that Corvette story.
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Crazy stuff, man. It sucks that someone can use the legal system like this to try to get away with theft. It's good you have the resources to fight back.
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I hope you're suing for legal costs too.
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It's like someone came into your house and forcefully throw you off your property. You can sue them all you want but they have more resources than you so you loose even it the removal was completely illegal. That is our legal system. The guy with the most money wins. I wonder if there are any crowd sourcing sites for this kind of thing.
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I'd be more than happy to donate to a GoFundMe or something similar to support the court case.
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I think if the defense found out a case was being funded by a GoFundMe drive, they'd end up using that to get the case thrown out.
It seems like Phurby is in a good position, able to absorb the legal costs. And as soon as he makes it to court, he'll have the Shelby and can easily recoup any outlays. The hassle sucks, but it is what it is. Better this than settle for half the value splitting the vehicle with a thief.
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I mean, I'm not a lawyer, but I would think that if you can get in front of a judge and demonstrate that the current 'owner' used legal delay tactics that were clearly designed to bleed you guys into submission, recouping your legal expenses in a settlement or judgement would be pretty likely.
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It sucks that he's trying to wear you down, but you will prevail in the end and justice will be done. I'm assuming this is all in civil and not criminal court, so you can recoup your legal fees without having to re-file in a different court.
Somewhat relatable, I have a small rental property business and I had some tenants bail on a lease and left their illegal sublet living there. I was nice and tried to work with the guy, but he could not afford living there by himself. Even though he had never signed a lease with me, I still had to go through the complete eviction process, hire a lawyer and take him to court. It took a couple of months and some money, but the day I showed up with the sheriff to get him out was absolutely glorious! :D
Our legal system is not perfect, but it does work quite well.
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Sorry, I'm being kind of quiet about this and not giving details. Anything more would just cost more money and time.
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No worries Paul. You do what you have to do. When the time is right we're hear ready to hear the tale! :D
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I think the main problem here is our lawyer seems to have lose focus that we are the plaintiffs here not the defendants. The other side acts as if they hold title but they can never get that title. We keep having to defend ourselves with stupid money sucking attacks instead of being on the offense. Our lawyer has also billed for phone calls that last hours to the other side which according to the state bar is not allowed. No lawyer talks on the phone to the other side or anybody for hours. There has also been no professional courtesy extended. It's been almost two years and he still hasn't put it in front of a judge for trail. Now the other side is claiming that we can't have the car because it would make us rich. That is the level of stupidity we are dealing with now.
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Why haven't you guys started by finding another lawyer?
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I think we are going to do that. He needs us more than we need him.
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I need an update here!
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Digging up stuff from the past the last few days Rob?
I was actually wondering about this exact same thing a few days ago. Is the happy ending working it's way into place?
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I've been wondering, too. I hope things turn out well and your family can recover the car.
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There has been a lot of things that have happen. First, we got rid of the lawyer that did nothing but rack up a bill. Interesting thing is he never had a signed contract from us which is required by the Bar. He would be in trouble if they found out. Next we have a buyer for the car that has been taking care of the new lawyer fees. My dad worked out a deal with him. Then back in January my dad died of prostrate cancer so that put things in the air. Now my mom says we finally have a court date of March 29th. Someone is suppose to be appraising the car. So we will see how things go.
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So sorry to hear about your father passing, Paul.
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Oh man, not the update I was hoping for.
So sorry to hear it.
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Damn Paul, so sorry to hear about your Dad.
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Damn man. My condolences to you and your family.
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Sorry to hear that Paul
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Thanks everyone for your kind wishes. He was sick for about a year but when down pretty quickly in the last four months. Anyway, this week we had a pretrial with the judge over the phone to determine lawsuit merit. The judge said there was merit and scheduled the full trail for mid August. The judge suggested to the defendant that he sell the car and give us the proceeds before then. That really messed up the other side up. They didn't want to hear that. Our lawyer say they are pretty scared. The car was appraised for independently for this pretrial at five million and it was sold a number of times since we lost it and appeared in a couple of movies.
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Sheesh....looks like the most cost effective thing for the defense to do it to give you the car with a nice long apology.
I kind of feel bad for them since it sounds like they aren't the ones who originally stole it.
Still looking forward to you getting her back though!
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Glad it's looking up.
Any chance you can find out what movies it's been in? I can only imagine how surreal that would be to see your long lost car on the big screen.
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The main one I know about is The Gumball Rally (1976). Here is a couple of shots with the car in it.
(https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BODU4ZTVjMGUtMjFhOC00Y2FjLWEwMzAtYzA4MzBmZGM3NmY3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg)
(https://cochesclasicosdehoy.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/1966-ac-shelby-cobra-427-in-the-gumball-rally.jpg?w=720)
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Sorry situation aside, that's pretty cool.
How did you find out about where it had been? Also, do you have any present pictures of the car and any idea on it's mechanical status?
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I do have current pictures of the car. It's in mint shape. It's painted blue with a white strip down the center. It's also been in races in Europe. For legal reasons I can't post those here. Read the previous posts for the story.
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By my calculations, you should be in the trial phase. Hope we can get an update soon!
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By my calculations, you should be in the trial phase. Hope we can get an update soon!
No. It's more of the negotiations phase. Last I heard the offer was the car would be auctioned and the thief gets half the proceeds.
To quote Elastic Girl:
(https://media2.giphy.com/media/FXLYq0PyRTZJe/giphy.gif)
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That's bull****.
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why not just steal the car back?
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Any new news on this Phrub?
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New lawyer. Court case set for April. Who knows?
Lawyers are scum.
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Has this been resolved or are you still in legal limbo?
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We lost. No reason was given. I guess we didn't give the judge enough money under the table like the other side did. It doesn't help that my dad died two years ago and my mom knew nothing about the facts of the case. I believe there will be an appeal done in Los Angeles were the crime happened like it should have been done in the first place. Lawyers are leaches and most are incompetent.
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That sucks man. Especially sorry to hear about your dad not getting justice. At least you still have an avenue to get it back.