Posted on 12/20/2010 9:50:51 PM PST by nickcarraway
Stolen in 1974, recovered in 2009, classic vehicle is back home in Spokane, Wash.
After 36 years it is finally home.
Michelle Squires' 1964 VW Bus was trailered back to Spokane this week from California where it was found last year.
The van was stolen from an upholstery shop in the Browne's Addition area of the city in 1974. Squires thought it would never be seen again, then a customs agent discovered the stolen van at the Port of Los Angeles.
The van had been restored and was on its way to Germany. It never made it. Squires was notified the van had been found, and she went to work to get it back. An attorney in Oklahoma saw the story in the Wall Street Journal and offered her services pro bono.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Was it the Darma bus?
I bet it smells like hippies
Did he also get back his 3 grams of hash, the collection of Grateful Dead concert ticket stubs and his prized 8 track tape of Woodstock?
Maybe the article was written badly, but I understood it to mean she bought the van later after she lost the auction.
I had a Honda 350XL stolen from me once. Police found it about five years later. When I went to collect it told them it wasn’t my bike. They said yes it is, checked the VIN and sure enough.
The guy that stole it sold it to someone else. That someone else replaced the fuel tank (I had laid the bike over and crushed one side) as well as some additional after market upgrades.
So got the bike back in better condition than it was when it was stolen.
I spent 13 weeks traveling around Europe in 1966 with Dad, Mom and two teenage sisters in a nearly identical 1966 model in the same color! We slept all five of us in a single Sears frame tent, which my mom figured out how to fold into the back of the van with the sleeping bags.
We flew over from the US on an Icelandic Airlines turboprop (stopover in Rekjavik) and took delivery in Glasgow. Then we wound our way across 16 countries including Greece, Yugoslavia, East Germany and Norway and finally delivering the VW to Antwerp for shipment back to the US. The 42 hp motor gave it a top speed of about 58 on the autobahn IIRC with the five of us and our gear.
We only had one problem and that was when we arrived by ferry in Norway at a small fishing village, got unloaded and the ferry departed and then my father found that the VW bus didn't have sufficient power to climb the hill on the one road out of the village to head back to Oslo even in first gear!
My dad, being a hobbyist mechanic before becoming a minister, knew that the reverse gearing on the VW was even higher than the first gear, and as luck would have it, he correctly figured that we could exit the town going uphill backwards in reverse gear, which is what we did. Fortunately there was no traffic at all to contend with. I was happy to ride shotgun while the women rode in the back. This was particularly exiting in England because when we needed to pass slower vehicles (yes there were actually slower vehicles) my dad couldn't see down the road from his left-hand drive seating so he would poke my side of the bus out to the right a bit and ask me if it was clear for him to pass (yikes!). I had only had my license for a few months at that time, this was very nerve-wracking. We made it back after 13 weeks intact without a scratch.
I was weeks from leaving Berlin in 1992 when I came across a PRIMO!! 1953 Volkswagen Beetle with the split window. The guy wanted “only” $2,000 for it.
I was saving money to help pay for my PCS move with the Army so went back and forth in my mind over this for several days, finally deciding I didn’t need the extra expense.
Boy, was I a dumbass. That was a great looking car and well worth the $2k.
See, not all customs agents spend their days gunning down estranged wives and their boyfriends.
Found with the original keychain intact.
“This story pissed me off last year when I read it and now I am even angrier. This filthy Baby-Booming hippie took the payout for the van from her insurance company. Why would she have any rights to this vehicle? The fact that she got lawyers involved after she lost the auction bid on the bus is BS”
That vehicle which purchased in 1964 was stolen in 1974 and the insurance company (apparantly took 6 years) paid out what (?)in the 80’s. I’m surprized she even carried theft at that time for a 10 year old period piece (of underpowered junk).
At that time what was that vehicle worth. I rather doubt her payout amounted to %35,000 .
AHA!!! The track of the American chicken. I have noted its comeback.
Actually, original factory equipment included a roach clip. I had a girl friend, in the day, who had an old beat up panel truck with a matress in the back. My little brother (and his friends) were soooo jealous.
I had a professor in law school who claimed that, back in the 1970s, a West Texas judge ruled that having long hair, and driving a VW Bus with New Mexico plates, gave the police probable cause to stop you on suspicion of possession of marijuana.
I didn’t know Roy Bean was still riding the circuit in the 1970’s.
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