Prodigal car

On Thursday, June 21 2007, when authorities contacted Ronald Leung, 59, who runs Rent A Heap Cheap in Milpitas CA about a car they had recovered, he assumed they had one of his missing rentals. They were calling him instead, to inform him that they had recovered his own stolen car.

Palo Alto police were calling him about a 1956 Ford Thunderbird they had recently recovered. A Ventura County woman contacted authorities after the VIN on the car she purchased from an Ohio eBay seller was found to not exist in the California Department of Motor Vehicles registry. California Highway Patrol officer Christopher Throgmorton, an ace in this type of recoveries, took up the detective work from there. A sharp eye found the mixup between 2 and Z and that is what put the police in touch with Leung, a former sheriff's deputy and car enthusiast.

"The car's been gone longer than my son is old. My son's 30, the car's been gone 31 years," Leung told ABC News.

That's right, Palo Alto police called him exactly 31 years from the day it was reported stolen from his mechanic's shop in 1976. It was originally blue but Leung had repainted it white after falling in love with Suzanne Somers and her white T-Bird in "American Graffiti". He spent Friday working with AllState to try and reproduce the original paperwork for the car so that he can claim it. It had been recovered in excellent condition and is back to being blue. He may have to wait a few more days to drive his car again but he has said that he waited 31 years already and he doesn't mind waiting a few more.

"It's like my baby finally coming home. It's karma. You do good things for people all your life, and it comes back to you," Leung said.