My stolen 308GTB is Back!!

*NEWS!* It has been 5 years and 2,5 months since my 308GTB (#33007) was stolen from me in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
14 months later, I found it back. (I checked EVERY car advertising site 3-4 times a week, for 14 months..) It was advertised for sale in Belgium.
The next day me and a friend (I’ll keep his name private for now) drove down to identify the car. After confirming that it was indeed my car, the police confiscated the car, and it was taken into custody.
3,5 years of legal precedings followed, and finally the car was turned over to my insurance company who in turn offered the car back for sale to me.
And that’s where we stand right now...I bought back the car that I owned for almost 13 years before she was stolen from me.
Obviously there’s work to be carried out. Engine needs a thorough inspection and service, and some cosmetic issues need to be dealt with. But I will soon be able to enjoy her again. And I’m VERY happy and proud to be the owner again of #33007, a beautiful black dry sumped euro GTB.

 

It was a dealer in used sports cars.

 

The cars papers had been falsified, and it had been successfully registered on Belgian plates..

 

I will refrain from any opinions or judgments towards the ‘dealer’. I simply don’t know what his role was.

 

Thanks Mark!

 

Well, since my insurance company was technically the owner of the car (they paid me the agreed value 1 month after it was stolen) I was not involved in this legal battle.
The first ruling was that the dealer did not know he had a stolen car, and thus was entitled to keep it (The chassis number was altered). My insurance company appealed, and won. Then the dealer apparently sued and tried to got some of his expenses recovered...unsuccessfully.
In the end, the car was rightfully appointed to the insurance company, and it was on its way back home to Holland. The original chassis number was reinstated, I was made an offer I couldn’t refuse, and that was that.

 

Yes, and so did the insurance company...had I not found it back for them it would have probably just dissappeared. It was cloned, to resemble another black GTB that had been on the market in the Netherlands, and later in Denmark. It had THAT cars’ chassis number (done WELL! ) and the odometer was increased from 33000km to 53000 km to resemble the other car. (My speedometer/odometer will now need work...where can I get a new chrome bezel for it? It looks like they used a tuna can opener to access the odometer digits..)

 

One word: Belgium. That’s all I’m going to say about the court case. I wasn’t involved since my insurance company was the legal owner of the car.

 

That was last week..

 

Thank you sir! Apparently the dutch paperwork that was used (the equivalent of a ‘title’) was stolen from a DOT office about 15 years ago. I spoke to an insurance agent who used to be a police detective, and he recognized the serial number of that specific paperwork. Seems that paperwork in that stolen range of number shows up from time to time as stolen cars are retrieved.
Indeed worrisome that the Belgian DOT accepted it’s validity, and didn’t do any type of research when the car was immatriculated (is that even an English word?)