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Stolen 1957 Chevy Takes the Long Road Home
When a vehicle is stolen and disappears into Mexico, there usually is little hope of a happy ending. So, when Bob Brown's unlocked and uninsured classic red 1957 Chevrolet pickup truck went missing three years ago during a grocery-shopping trip in Southern California, he didn't think he'd see it again. Then came the call this year from the Grover Beach police near San Diego saying his truck had been found. Brown was ecstatic.
Grover Beach officers arrested a known thief after he bragged on social media about a pickup he'd stolen as a Christmas present for himself; the post included a photo of the man with the shiny red classic Chevy. However, by the time the thief was arrested the truck already had been sold, disappearing into Mexico.
Enter the National Insurance Crime Bureau, where Special Agent Roger Hogan noticed the police report and put the Chevy's vehicle identification number and description into NICB's database. This summer, after seeing the truck in a Mexican salvage yard, an NICB foreign operations vendor checked the VIN and up popped Brown's name. Hogan contacted Brown to let him know his pickup had been found, and NICB worked with U.S. Customs to get it back.
Brown plans to do a full restoration of the truck; he estimates it will cost about $20,000 to bring it back to its original glory. This time it will be white, a color that is reported to be stolen less often than red.
The NICB is a not-for-profit agency dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft. It is supported by property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations.
