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You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

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HealeyRick

HealeyRick

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[h=1]Police hunt stolen Austin Healey classic car worth estimated £100,000[/h][h=2]Owner spent 18 months restoring the 1955 convertible which was stolen from his garage on Christmas Eve[/h]




B3-2015-Stolen-Aus_3154477b.jpg
"Extremely rare" and "distinctive", the light blue and cream vehicle is estimated to be worth £100,000 Photo: Metropolitan Police









By David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent

1:40PM GMT 05 Jan 2015



A classic car worth £100,000 is being hunted by police after it was stolen from its owner's garage.

Pascal Maeter, from Chelsea, west London, spent 18 months restoring the 1955 Austin Healey convertible and said the project had been a "labour of love".

It was stolen from his locked garage on Christmas Eve.

Mr Maeter said: "When I was given this car it had not been used for 40 years. It looked good from 20 metres, but when you got up close you saw that it needed a great deal of work.

"It took me many months to get it back to being a beautiful and working machine.


"I really hope the public can help. It was not just an ordinary car to me. This was a much loved gift, one of a special production and restoring it was a labour of love."
Mr Maeter's wife gave the car to him as a 50th birthday present two years ago.
Described by Scotland Yard as "extremely rare" and "distinctive", the light blue and cream vehicle is estimated to be worth in the region of £100,000.
It was parked in Mr Maeter's garage at 2pm on Christmas Eve and later that evening he found the garage door had been forced open and the car taken.
Detective Constable Joe de Vere of the Metropolitan Police said: "This is the sort of car that people would notice and for that reason it has probably been stored off-road, but it will need to be moved eventually.
"The car is very distinctive and extremely rare.
I would ask the public to remember what it looks like and call police if they see it."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uk...ealey-classic-car-worth-estimated-100000.html



 
Looks like a M Registry badge on the front and if worth 100,000 pounds, equates to $160,000 ! Now if this is in the 100M Registry, Bill Meade can assist the owner and police if someone calls/e-mails him to check on its authenticity. If who stole it tries to sell it, hopefully the buyer will do some research on it. Lot of states over here do not require a title on cars older than 1968 and other similar years so pretty easy to come up with a new title after showing a BOS at the local DMV. Have no idea how titles work in Europe, UK, OZ or NZ, all potential homes for this Healey. Otherwise will probably end up in some private collection in Europe. Really sad for the owner/restorer in UK ! Rick is sure right, Grinch really stole that guy's Christmas !
Regards
Mike
 
Could also be in a continer headed to Asia, Russia, Africa or some other part of the world where identity is easier to hide. As distintive as it is, could easily be a "stolen to order" theft. Happens with art much more rare than any car.
 
For the reasons stated I think this will be a difficult car for a thief to sell anywhere unless someone is content to have it sit in a private collection.

Stranger things have happened as witness the theft of priceless pieces of art that have disappeared over the centuries, some never to be seen again. Not to digress but one of the most noteworthy examples is the famous "Amber Room" stolen by the Nazis from St. Petersburg and lost in the chaos of WWII.

In any case let's hope this car does not get parted out.
 
Michael,

Here's another story. As you suggested, the owner fears it will end up in someone's living room:

"Banker Pascal Maeter spent 18 months restoring the classic 1955 Austin Healey - a 50th birthday present from his wife. But no sooner had he got it back on the road than it was stolen.The blue and white convertible was parked in Mr Maeter's Chelsea garage until at least 2pm on Christmas Eve. But that evening he found his garage door had been forced open and the car was missing.The car was first bought by an American soldier in Germany.
He moved back to the United States in the 1960s, and he sold the car to a person who kept it in his living room. So between 1963 and 2013 it basically didn't spin a wheel.
To tell you how compulsive I am - the original 1950s cup-holder was made using a machine that no longer exists, but one of those original machines ended up in Canada, so we tracked it down and sourced the cup-holder from there.
It took so long to get done I've only just started driving it.
​
– PASCAL MAETER


Police say the car is worth as much as £100,000, but Mr Maeter said he is more concerned about its sentimental value, both because it was a gift and because he poured 18 months of meticulous work into it.
He believes that whoever took it will struggle to offload it.

That car is unsellable. This is not like an RV that has another hundred thousand copies of it. There are very, very few of these cars left. It wouldn't make sense to sell it for parts because it's worth more as a whole - but as it is it's far too distinctive to sell. Who knows, maybe it will be sitting in someone else's living room for another 50 years.
​
– PASCAL MAETER

https://www.itv.com/news/london/201...-000-convertible-car-stolen-on-christmas-eve/





 
What is an "original 1950's cup holder"?
 
Michael -

My wife would meet that definition. She was born in the 50's and holds my coffee cup while I am driving!:smile:
 
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