[RichSchmidt]

I have had many things stolen over the years,and sooner or later the truth comes out.Most of what I had stolen was parts,but a friends car was stoeln out of my shop too.Everything was revealed sooner or later.I ended up working on 2 different cars that had parts that were stolen off my car{which wasnt stolen just stripped in my driveway}.
Here is the real kick in the teeth.The car that was stolen out of my garage was pulled over by the cops the night it was stolen{we didnt know it was gone for a week}.The car had no registration or insurance,but since it was a hot rod and didnt look like a street car and the cop didnt feel like busting the kids ballz,he let him go because the kid said he was only driving it a few blocks to his garage to work on it.The cops told us who had it as soon as we called it in stolen,but they refused to go look for it since they car was old and had no paperwork other then a title so it was junk to them{the kid who owned it had over 10 grand invested in an 11 second drivetrain and the car was MINT}.The kid who stolen it went MIA for a few months then was arrested for something else so we couldnt get to him.A few months later he was driving a clean 80 malibu with a beatin and choppin 406 under the hood and a 12 bolt with very distinct modifications to it.After I inspected the car on the street and verified it was built using the stolen parts we waited down the block for the kid to come out of his house so that we could jump him.After a while long wait we made like we were leaving and drove around the block and caught him taking off in the car.A high speed chase persued,and I guess I built that 406 a little too good since we didnt stand a chance of catching him and he almost killed dozens of people in the process.We never saw the car again and I only saw the kid drivng by once after that in a brand new pickup truck,and he moved from Jersey to Florida after that and a while later his obituary was in the paper.So the mystery of where this car and the parts went will remain unsolved.I think I may have the engine block out of it since I recently purchased a fresh.040" over 400 block from a local machine shop that was painted the same blueover orange as the engine that was stolen,and both engines were from 1973 pasenger cars.I struggle with the idea of what to do with this engine,but I have no proof,and I did pay good money for it,so I guess it is mine.

As for the cars that were stolen,it is a shame since in parts the cars are practically worthless compared to what they are as a whole.Even if they were tagged or otherwise altered,they would be worthless since most of them are fairly high end cars that would be impossible to document with altered VIN numbers.so basically somebody stole a million dollars worth of cars and could only stand to profit about 50 grand in parts value.what a shame.