46 years later, owner to get stolen Jaguar back
46 years later, owner to get stolen Jaguar back
AP Photo: Damian Dovarganes
LOS ANGELES (AP) Forty-six years ago Ivan Schneider, successful Manhattan lawyer, bought himself the Jaguar convertible that would feature in a most unusual tale of unrequited love.
It was the first (and "prettiest") of many luxury cars he would own, his companion on fast drives and the only one that was ever stolen.
Forty-six years later, a and Border Patrol analyst running a routine export check through a stolen car database came up with a hit. The 1967 XKE was hot.
The problem: It was already on a cargo ship, in a container, headed for , two days out of the Port of Long Beach on the Pacific Ocean.
Investigators with the Highway Patrol and nonprofit National Insurance Crime Bureau got to work.
New York police still had the March 1968 incident report.
CHP investigator Michael Maleta spoke with Schneider in Florida, where he now lives. Schneider thought it was a prank.
"After we convinced him, he was excited," said Maleta.
After all, Schneider told The Associated Press on Wednesday, he would think of the car every time he bought a new one. And, he said, he is a car guy who has owned quite a few exotics.
AP Photo: Damian Dovarganes
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, public affairs liaison chief, Lee Ann Harty, right, shows the interior of a classic British roadster, a 1967 Jaguar XK-E convertible that was stolen 46 years ago to his original owner, car collector Ivan Schneider via video conference in Carson, Calif., Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014.
For the months he owned it, he was in love.
"I've always said that was the prettiest," Schneider, now 82, said.
Tracing the car's history, Maleta learned the man exporting it to the had bought it about three months ago from an owner in the San Joaquin Valley, who himself had it 40 years.
What happened between its disappearance from the concrete canyons of the Upper East Side and its California sojourn Maleta hopes his investigation will answer that.
After its out-and-back sea journey to the Netherlands, the car is back in Southern California, more than two months after the law finally found it.
It's rusty and scratched, but still worth about $24,000 and far more if restored, as Schneider plans to do.
He just won't push it too hard.
It's old, so is he, and though beautiful it is known for trouble under the hood.
"I'll use it as a car," Schneider said. "They were never reliable."
At least, one day soon, it will be back home.
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WOW..another story of a stolen car found after being stolen 46 years ago!
lol...I forgot to include the word car...my mistake!