A Colorado woman’s stolen car was recovered after the alleged thief driving the vehicle happened to cut off her husband in traffic.
Longmont resident Anna Shandy’s blue Kia Sportage was stolen from the parking lot of the Longmont Recreation Center on Feb. 21 after someone broke into her locker and took her car keys.
‘They Had Everything’
More worryingly, the thieves also made off with the keys to her house.“They had the house keys, my garage door opener,“ Anna said. ”They had everything.”
Shandy contacted the police, who filed a stolen vehicle report and said she stood a reasonable chance of recovering her Kia.
‘Like I Won the Lottery’
The following Monday, Shandy’s husband Nathin was driving along I-25 in his work truck, when a car sped up from behind and cut him off. The vehicle looked like his wife’s stolen Kia, but it wasn’t until he got a good look at the license plate that he made the astonishing realization.“[It wasn’t] until she got directly in front of me that I was 100 percent—that is my license plate and that is my car,” he said, according to the news outlet.
Shandy’s husband called 911 and followed the car. A little while later, Firestone police stopped the car at a gas station.
“The car drove right in front of me,“ Nathin Shandy said. ”I mean, that’s what I think is the craziest, you know?”
Police arrested two suspects—a man and a woman.
“The sheer odds of something like that happening—I mean, I felt like I won the lottery,” Nathin Shandy said.
“Someone’s looking out,” he added. “The stars were aligned. What are the chances? The millions of people driving up and down on I-25 all day long, that my own car would cut me off right in front of me.”
Stolen Car on eBay
The incident recalls a similar case of a Texas man who found his car on eBay—42 years after it was stolen.As decades passed, the probability of finding the car become ever more scant.
But Russell kept track of the vehicle identification number (VIN) and in 2012 was shocked to find a car listed on eBay that was a perfect match.
“I’m not trying to sound indelicate, but you’re selling my car,” Russell told the Los Angeles dealer who listed the cream-colored Austin-Healey 3000.
Russell had to enlist the help of the Philadelphia Police Department because the car was no longer listed as an active stolen car.
Porsche Stolen 27 Years Ago Found in Forest
A man walking his dog deep in the Oregon woods also made a startling discovery in Nov. 2017—a wrecked Porsche coupe on its roof, wedged against a tree at the bottom of a steep embankment, said police.The 1979 Porsche 924 had been reported stolen from a movie theater parking lot in Medford, Oregon—nearly 27 years ago. Evidence found on and around the wreckage suggested the car had been there for a long time.
“Heavy forest debris indicated the vehicle had been there for a significant period of time. The registration tags expired in 1991,” stated the police report.
The car’s location at the bottom of a cliff made it difficult to spot, police said.
Skeletal remains in the vicinity of the vehicle were also reported by the dog walker, who immediately called dispatch to report the find. Police investigators determined that the bones were not human in origin–they belonged to a deer.
The Porsche was stolen from a movie theater parking lot on Jan. 20, 1991, and was the subject of a police investigation.
The missing Porsche was found near Abbott Prairie Road (National Forest Road 6620), about 1.5 miles north of the intersection with Elk Creek Road.
