"KatzManDu" (KatzManDu)
04/02/2014 at 13:06 • Filed to: None
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"KatzManDu" (KatzManDu)
04/02/2014 at 13:06 • Filed to: None | 2
| 8 |
Los Jalops,
I was wanting to write to you a success story on finding my dad's car which was stolen out of his marked parking place at his office, but I just don't have the time to do all the research myself. I'm wondering if anyone here would be willing to help.
Oh, and here is a picture of my parents leaving their wedding, almost 50 years ago.
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In the fall of 1968 my father's 1963 Corvette, yes, a split-window coupe, was stolen out of his marked parking place at his office in Evanston, IL. It was towed out of his space while his secretary and others in the office watched; they assumed that it being towed was a legitimate occurrence and that it was being hauled off to a garage for repair work. This was a car he bought new, and all that was left was one hubcap as it was hastily dragged away.
The car was never found; insurance paid out and my father then purchased a brand new 1969 Mustang Mach I, but I digress.
From my perspective, the first item we need to track it down is the VIN. I don't have this. The easiest place for us to find the VIN would be the police report. I checked with the Evanston police department and they do have historical records, but I don't have an exact date of the theft. I don't want to waste a police department's time searching through paper archives without a decent range of dates. Since this occurred almost 50 years ago, my father's mind is a little hazy and pinning down the exact year this all took place was difficult enough.
I need someone with some reference/resource/research skills to find an Evanston newspaper with a police blotter and then be able to search that newspaper to find an approximate date of when the car was stolen. Northwestern University has a newspaper, but you can only search it from computers on the Northwestern Campus, and it may or may not have had a police blotter section.
The second question is once I have the VIN, what do I do with it? I assume I can google it and see if it pops up in any for-sale ads. I remember some website that was done by TRW(?) that lets you track your former vehicles by VIN to see where they're registered, BUT since this is a pre-1974(?) vehicle, it doesn't have one of the more modern 14-character VINs that we're all used to, so many of those sites may not work.
This boils down to three things; do we have any Los Jalops in the Chicago/Evanston area who can look through the crime blotter and two, what do I do with the VIN once I get it? The third question would be without the VIN, how else could we try and track the car down?
offroadkarter
> KatzManDu
04/02/2014 at 13:18 |
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If you get the vin, you could hire a private investigator who deal with this kind of stuff. Not the cheapest but probably the fastest.
Also, your tax dollars fund the police, get some use out of them.
505Turbeaux
> KatzManDu
04/02/2014 at 13:24 |
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I think you could narrow it down with some digging with your dad (was it nice out, late fall, snow out, or if for some reason, he has had the same insurer since 68 or their name, you may have something to go on there. I dug around a bit and everything is on microfiche. North Shore Examiner is a paper from Evanston 68-86 and there are fiches in the Chicago public library
Takuro Spirit
> KatzManDu
04/02/2014 at 13:31 |
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I recently found my 77 Firebird, although getting the VIN was actually the easiest part. I had a copy of the police report from an accident in 1998.
Before that I had tried the DMV using my plate number, my insurance company, etc.
I ran the VIN on the WI DMV site, and came back with nothing (without paying a fee and sending off a paper request to Madison), then found a site that does history checks like CarFax that would run the VIN for $5. It showed a last registered date in 2003, so I got my hopes up that after I got rid of it later that year in '98/'99, it made its way back on the road.
Then, forgetting I work at a dealership with DMV access, had the sales manager run the VIN and it gave me a last known address. I drove by and I think it's actually still there!
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
So is it possible to call the insurance company that paid the claim? Maybe they have paper files that were put in a searchable database?
midengineer
> KatzManDu
04/02/2014 at 14:38 |
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Maybe you can narrow it down more by finding out when he bought the mustang? Is he one of those people who keeps all the information about the car?
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KatzManDu
> 505Turbeaux
04/02/2014 at 16:23 |
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I have a few more details but I didn't post them. I figured if someone posted they could search some archives, I'd supply them with a bit more. I know the exact address it was stolen, and the time of day (while he was out for lunch.) I think I have the month narrowed down, too.
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505Turbeaux
> KatzManDu
04/02/2014 at 16:25 |
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sweet, I am down to do a little sleuthing though I am not local. I do have friends in Chi town who might be able to run with some legwork on it
MarkP
> KatzManDu
05/02/2014 at 11:52 |
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You can also check a couple places at the Corvette Action Center as well:
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/stolen-…
http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/infosearch/
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KatzManDu
> MarkP
05/04/2014 at 19:12 |
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Interesting. I shall research there. Thank you.