Forgotten, but not gone

Like something pulled from a time capsule, a '65 Mustang is corralled 20 years after it vanished from a street corner

By Kytja Weir, Globe Correspondent  |  March 15, 2008

It's one of the oddest lost-and-found cases ever.

When Sean Carmody's 1965 Ford Mustang convertible was stolen on a summer morning in 1984, the businessman figured it was gone forever. In fact, he had already had a similar Mustang stolen before, and police warned him that the second one was probably halfway to Canada when he reported it missing that day.

But more than 20 years later, authorities planning to tear down an old garage found his coveted Ford Mustang in Boston. The beige soft-top convertible with a thin navy pinstripe along the bottom was nearly the same as when the now 80-year-old retiree left it on a street corner as he grabbed breakfast before work.

This could be one for the record books. About three of every five vehicles stolen nationwide are recovered, and they are usually found relatively quickly. In fact, the average stolen vehicle was recovered in less than 62 days last year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

But sometimes, rarely, it takes years, even decades, for some vehicles to turn up, according to the Illinois-based nonprofit, which tries to prevent car theft. In December, authorities found a 1969 Mercedes Benz 280SL coupe in Michigan that was stolen 21 years earlier from Fort Lauderdale. A 1965 Shelby Mustang GT 350 turned up in Maryland last year, 25 years after it disappeared. And a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette stolen from New York City more than 30 years ago was found in 2006 sitting in a shipping container in Long Beach, Calif., bound for Sweden.

Old-style cars were easier to steal than today's models, some of which are now tricked out on the factory floor with heartbeat sensors that can spot a thief and GPS devices that can track them down.

In Carmody's Mustang, an old antitheft lock held together with plywood lies broken on the floor of the car. A rusted alligator clip can be found under the hood, probably a remainder, according to Boston police auto theft investigator Michael Santry, of how the thief bypassed the ignition after breaking the hood lock.

Some thieves or insurance fraud scammers will warehouse cars until they can unload the vehicle, chop it into sellable parts, or fraudulently collect from their insurance policies.

In the case of the stolen Ford Mustang, Santry said, it appears the thieves had started to strip the car, removing headlights and the front bumper. "They were going for more," he said, "but for some reason they abandoned it."

Carmody, meanwhile, had long forgotten about the car until he received a certified letter in September 2006 from Stanley Tow Service saying it was found.

At one time, he said, such cars had been a passion. He said he had driven a Mustang in 1966. Then in the 1970s, he sought one out again. But that was stolen on Boston's streets when he and his wife visited the Institute of Contemporary Art.

He tried again, he said, buying the beige 1965 model from California and then sinking in money to restore it. "I liked that year Mustang," he said, "and we had a lot of fun."

Then one day, he said, he parked the car on the corner of Broad and State streets as he went to get breakfast across from his office. But it was gone when he returned. "I kind of got disgusted," he said. "Why in the world would you want something that would get stolen all the time? I was not about to own another."

The landmarks where his first car was stolen no longer exist. The second car was stolen so long ago that Boston police no longer have the theft report in their computer system. And Carmody's business at the time, dictation machines, is obsolete.

"It's amazing how many changes there are," Carmody said.

But the car is like something pulled from a time capsule. When it was found, the seats were missing, and the tires were flat. But the body of the 8-cylinder Mustang GT289 was nearly clear of rust. It had just 37,588 miles on it, probably mothballed in the garage near the Boston-Brookline line ever since it was stolen.

It has no seat belts; Mustangs of that era didn't come with any. The registration sticker on the license plate expired in June 1983, and a KISS 108 FM bumper sticker is still on the back.

Now the car lies under a tarp in a Jamaica Plain tow truck lot, caught in no man's land for more than a year since it was found. Carmody doesn't have much use for an old-fashioned muscle car. He said he did consider trying to reclaim the car from his more youthful days. "I thought about it," he said, "for about three seconds."

Meanwhile, Bill Blinstrub, owner of Stanley Tow Service, said the insurance agency never followed up on his calls. "No one wants to go back 30 years into archives," he said.

Still, it hasn't met the junkyard fate of many old cars.

"If this was any other kind of car, I would have turned it over to the city of Boston," Blinstrub said. "It's just something that I hate to let go."

Instead, he's hoping that someone can restore the car to what it ought to be: a cherished collector's item. On eBay, dozens of 1965 Ford Mustangs are for sale for as much as $89,250.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau says in its records that the recovery value of Carmody's old Mustang has been adjusted in today's dollars to $75,000.

Blinstrub estimates that it would take work and love, but it could be restored to be worth at least $30,000.

"This is like the car to collect," Blinstrub said. "And with its mileage, it'd make people drool.

"That's why I keep it here."