Hello everyone,
Just letting you know that our stolen '87 GN has been recovered. We received the call last Wednesday, the 14th, from a detective with the OCPD that our car was found & recovered. It was found at a chop shop with 9-12 other cars of similar body types, Montecarlo SS etc. The VIN# had been altered on our car though, so it appears they were intending to keep it or sell it off. All of the badges had been removed, with screwdrivers I might add. So the paint suffered terribly. The rubber strips down both sides of the car were removed as well, again with screwdrivers. There are gouges all over the car from their rough handling. It looks like they attemped to sand the glue off from both doors. They (the theives) replaced the passenger side window that they broke out in the first place, and applied their own version of a tint job. (bubbles & tears galore) They didn't replace the inner door panel fully though after their window/tint job. The stock wheels & tires are gone, they put some junk, and I mean junk (rust & all), wheels & tires on instead. The trunk was completely removed & replaced with a dull red trunk lid. The trunk & wheels have not been found. They removed the fuel pressure gauge off of the hood, drilled a hole in the fire wall, & ripped the gauge out from under the dash so that they could dangle the light off of the hood release lever. (to still read the pressure?) They took the OE radio out completely, but we did find an Alpine stereo remote in the console (not ours), but no stereo to be found. They somehow broke the lightning rod shifters that we had in there, the 1st & 2nd shifter won't budge at all. And the plate Ben had made to cover the shifters was broken in half. But out of the kindness of their hearts (sarcasm here) they fixed the power booster (which we supplied the part in the trunk) so that they would have power brakes. They also got creative on some of the wiring under the hood (I'm kind of fuzzy here on which wires) not sure if it's to the alcohol injection or not. So there are some wiring nightmares involved. The taillights have been swapped out with some other kind of taillights. The molding around the windows were removed & a nice chrome one added to the front windshield. The backseat still looks great though!! They cracked the dash to remove the VIN plate & to add theirs. The only personal belongings left in the car were our wash mit, chamois, and loose change in the console. We just got word from the insurance agent that the car is totaled (sight unseen by the adjustor), due to the VIN# alteration. Which because of the VIN# we had to get a new VIN# which now makes the car a Regal, which depreciates the value by 60-70%, etc etc. We'll be going on the cruise Saturday & we'll be bringing pictures of the car after recovery if anyone is interested in seeing them. That's all for now. Hopefully we'll find out where the insurance stands later on today on the appraisal value of the car before it was stolen.
Ben & Ann
p.s
I forgot to mention, the car was actually recovered on March 30th, which was exactly one week after the car was stolen. But we weren't notified until April 14th, 2 weeks later. What led to the recovery was a guy selling his Montecarlo SS (prime condition) & he had a buyer drop by to inquire about it but didn't buy it. The next night it was stolen. Well, the seller decided to ask around & follow his own leads. (thank god he did) He successfully got a few addresses to follow up on, and lo & behold when he checked it out, he found his car, our car, and 9-12 other cars of similar body types. He notified the police & all of the cars were recovered. But no arrests have been made. Ok, that's it....I think.
Ben & Ann
