Man finds his Austin Healy sports car on eBay 42 years after it was stolen

A US man whose prized sports car was stolen 42 years ago has recovered the vehicle after spotting it on eBay, authorities said.

Robert Russell told the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that he had never given up searching for the 1967 Austin Healy after it was stolen from his Philadelphia home in 1970.

Mr Russell recently spotted what he thought was his car on eBay and checked the vehicle identification number on the website with the one on the car's title certificate, finding they were a match, the department said in a news release.

Mr Russell, who now lives in Texas, contacted the department in May, and detectives tracked down the car in East Los Angeles.

The 66-year-old retired sales manager from Southlake told the Dallas Morning News that he paid a friend $3,000 for the car. It had sentimental value to him because it was stolen the morning after he took his future wife out on their second date.

Russell said he spent years surfing the Internet looking for the car and didn't have much hope of finding it.

“The fact that the car still exists is improbable,” he said. “It could have been junked or wrecked.”

He said he checked on eBay periodically and spotted it a few weeks ago. He immediately called a Beverly Hills car dealership that was selling it.

He said the vehicle's identification number matched that of his car. He had the original key and car title, but not a copy of the stolen-car report to prove that it was stolen from him.

Mr Russell contacted Philadelphia police for help and learned that the stolen-car report wasn't showing up at the FBI's national crime index because one vehicle identification number was entered incorrectly. The report was finally found and the file was reactivated, enabling Los Angeles authorities to impound the car.

Mr Russell and his wife, Cynthia, drove to Los Angeles and took possession of the car. It's now valued at $23,000.

“It still runs, but the brakes don't work well,” he said. “We're going to put it back the way it was.”

- Source