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City News

1974 Called: It Wants Its Magic Bus Back

By Dennis Romero, Thursday, Nov. 5 2009 @ 10:53AM
Comments (4)
Categories: community, crime, odd news

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced that they just recovered a Volkswagen van that had been reported stolen in 1974.

The 1965 Bus was found in at the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports, in a shipping container bound for the Netherlands, Customs authorities said. They ran the van's vehicle identification number and discovered it had been reported stolen from Spokane, Washington in the year of Patty Hearst, Nixon's resignation and an OPEC-led gas crunch.
vw-bus.jpg
Volkswagen
​

"This is a unique case that reflects our strategic approach in utilizing the best of intelligence, training and use of information in enforcing laws and regulations at our ports," said Customs field operations director Kevin Weeks.

Spokane police said the case was still open and that it's current owner, an insurance company, would like the car back.

Lucky for it: The vee-dub is described as being in "pristine condition," and it apparently starts and runs like a dream. No word on whether any of the era's accoutrements -- you know, pot resin, a skunky smell, bell-bottom jeans, puka shells hanging from the mirror -- were included in the find.

Patina or not, we've spotted cherry examples going for more than $10,000, so the insurance company might be making out like like hippie on payday.

Tags:

1960s, 1970s, hippies, Port of Long Beach, Port of Los Angeles, stolen vehicle, Volkswagen
Comments (4) Write Comment
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More About:

  • Spokane
  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection
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  • Crime

Comments (4)

Gabriele says:

The comments from Customs director Weeks are laughable. ALL vehicles which are to be exported must have their titles verified before they are accepted for export. It's an ongoing procedure that has been in effect for at least 20 years.
The company that is arranging the shipping prepares a document showing which vessel and voyage the cars are booked to load, the original title and two copies are attached and the set is submitted to Customs. The vin numbers are checked in a database and either accepted or rejected. If accepted, Customs punches one of the photocopies with their info (Customs and date info) and returns that copy and the original title.
The forwarder/broker/etc. is then authorized to load the vehincle(s) into the container. The steamship line is not supposed to load the container without copies of the approved titles (BIG fines if procudure not followed and they're caught).
So for Customs to be celebrating what should be a routine enforcement issue is ludicrous.
I guess the vintage makes it more of a story, but it's still a non-story if you're talking about the quote from Weeks.
There are men and women working for Customs who do much more and receive less credit.

Posted On: Thursday, Nov. 5 2009 @ 1:34PM
halo dress says:

Having Mr. Lif open for Chali 2na and Gift of Gab basically just proved that he's at least as good as they are. Made me wish he'd come to the West Coast more often.

Posted On: Thursday, Dec. 17 2009 @ 11:15AM
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Posted On: Wednesday, Jan. 6 2010 @ 7:34AM
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Posted On: Wednesday, Feb. 3 2010 @ 3:46AM

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