Yahoo Autos Good News: Stolen Corvette Returned to Owner 40 Years Later
Back in 1976, Modesto Fleming, 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. Until October, that was the case. But thanks to one hard-working police officer and a little bit of luck, Fleming finally has her car back.
Earlier this year, the then-owner took the 1964 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to a car show. As the Red Bluff Daily News reports, there, someone pointed out that the car's VIN didn't actually belong to a Corvette. As it turned out, the VIN was actually from a 1964 Impala. Using a different identifying number, the officer was able to verify with the National Insurance Crime Bureau that the car had been stolen.
"The number returned to a 1964 Chevy Corvette that was an unrecovered stolen vehicle out of Anaheim Police Department in September of 1976," Officer Madrigal told the Red Bluff Daily News. "I contacted Anaheim and advised them of the situation. They then located the victim from 1976, who is currently living in Arizona, and told her we had her car."
Four decades after it was originally stolen, Fleming has her stolen Corvette back. Sadly, the man who the car was recovered from had owned the car since his wife gave it to him in 1987. At the time, she bought it from a dealership that 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.
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