Hurricane Wilma, and the mysterious Yellow Ferrari

Good evening Florida F-chatters,

In 2005, i was living in Miami, while working on the beach and going to FIU. In lieu of incoming Hurricane Wilma, I decided to head up to Boca to help my parents get the house ready for the impeding dangerous situation--you know, the usual--boarding up windows, gathering supplies etc. ultimately i decided to wait out the storm up there as well.

Now i cannot recall if i first saw the vehicle before or after the storm had hit (i want to say before), but there she was, on the corner of Yamato Road and Lakes at Boca Raton Drive; quite the residential neighborhood--a shiny, Giallo i-want-to-say-360, parked 100% on the grass, near a sidewalk and directly on the intersection. Honestly trying to recall exact details is difficult at the moment, considering it was almost 5 years ago already, however i'm quite sure it was a 360 and not a 355 or 430.

in any case, i remember looking my (ex)girlfriend and my younger brother and saying something such as, "why on earth would somebody leave their car ,let alone a yellow Ferrari, parked at a random, public intersection like that?" if i had to guess i'd say that he/she must've thought the spot, devoid of trees or any obstruction would be a safe place to leave the car during the storm? who knows. it was bizarre. very bizarre. and for me, a bonafide F-Nut, exciting, that a Ferrari just randomly dropped from the sky and on the corner of my quiet West Boca neighborhood.

i remember saying to my brother during the storm, which by the way reminded me of scenes from the movie Twister, that with the amount of little twerps and hooligans in our area--between The Lakes, The Shores, Boca Isles and alike, compounded with very little to do because of power loss and the general shut down of the region, that the giallo beauty WILL MOST DEFINETLY be tampered with.


sure enough, power was out for hella long, like 5 days as i recall. stores were closed, gas stations were out of gas, safe to say not a pleasant situation. so 1 day passes, Ferrari is still there. 2 days pass--its still there. i cant recall which specific day but within a couple days i remember driving back to my house down Yamato and seeing a shattered window, i want to say drivers side. my younger brother turned to me said "you were right, Shaan. somebody f**ked with the Ferrari." needless to say i was disappointed that my beliefs did infact turn into reality, and well, we pulled over to assess damage. On the side of the road, i noticed a faceplate, presumably from the F-car, an Alpine unit CDA-9827. i snagged it and had full intentions of returning it to it's owner...my logic was, somebody is going to take this, and not return it. all in all i was saddened that some bozo(s) decided to mess with the car, and at the very least, i could return the faceplate to rightful owner, instead of leaving it there only to be stolen by some chump. i figured, at least this owner can know that there is at least some good souls out there, and that i was one of them.

At any rate, my family soon moved out of our house after, and lost in the mess of boxes and moving and between my academic/professional career in Miami the faceplate was lost, and i was quite upset at myself for being responsible for what i was trying to prevent.

Good news is, i got a phone call from my Mom this morning who was cleaning out some old boxes and she has apparently found the faceplate. and now, almost 5 years later, i'd like to finish what i originally intended to do and return the faceplate to it's rightful owner. I'm hoping that maybe the owner is here on the site. So the question is, is the owner here?


Warm Regards to all my fellow Floridians.


SD

 

Cool story. Interesting and weird.

 

Sounds like an insurance job to me.

 

could be, but mortgage fraud is the speciality in (south) florida

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-04-26/business/os-florida-mortgage-fraud-20100426_1_mortgage-fraud-appraisal-fraud-shoddy-appraisals

 

My guess is he couldn't afford the payments and hoped it would disapear or just be totaled.

 

Crazy story! But it made me think of a Yellow 360 that I have seen sitting on a used car lot on Lejune Road just south of the 836/airport area. The lot is NOT a used exotics lot, just a run of the mill used car lot, so the Ferrari looks out of place. The car has been there for sale for at least a year. I wonder if this could be the same car? It is strange for a car to sit so long on a dealer's lot without either a buyer or a flip to the auction. Maybe this Yellow 360 is the same car or has an equally ignominious history. ???

 

Leaving a car somewhere so that it gets stolen and then collect on the insurance is an old escape route for someone who can no longer afford the payments or that is simply unable to unload the car.
Nothing really new under the Sun and much less under the Florida Sun.

 

Yes, I've seen the yellow 360 parked at that used car lot for quite some time. It's just 2 blocks south of 836 on L.J. Road next to Latin Cafe Restaurant. A real shame, but I'll stop by tomorrow to take a look and inquiry about it. Who knows ...

 

Please let us know.... I'm curious as hell at this point.

I think that car was a toy for one of the owners (or his son). Been for sale forever. I inquired about it once but they were no where near serious about pricing it, asking more than $100k.

 

i need a faceplate for an old alpine .....someone stole it from my car from the side of the road while i was in jail for two weeks !!!! lol