Tales From The Cooler: Who Stole My Ford GT?

Virgil Hilts
by Virgil Hilts

The city of Rancho Santa Fe is located in the rolling hills north of San Diego. It claims, like so many other burgs across this country, to have the highest average family income in the nation. Wherever they rank, the little town of 3,100 residents boasts some serious bucks.

And one RSF resident just lost his or hers 2005 blue-with-white stripes Ford GT supercar.

Authorities report that the $200,000 car went missing sometime before July 10 while the owner was away for three weeks. They will not identify the victim (could it be RSF’s most famous resident, golfer Phil Mickelson, long sponsored by Ford?)

Something is rotten in Rancho. The police have at least two stories: they told one news outlet that the car was stolen from a “storage area.” They told another it was taken from a home while it was being burglarized. Neither tale rings true. There is clearly more to the story and that is where you come in.

The local Crime Stoppers line has offered a $1,000 reward for the return of the filched Ford but TTAC is upping the ante. Please predict the story and outcome of this caper for a chance to win a cool automobilia prize. Will the car turn up in a Tijuana junkyard sans engine? Was it owned by a drug lord? More infighting among Carroll Shelby’s heirs? You tell us.

The winner will receive this neat glass-and-granite desktop display honoring the One Millionth Honda Accord rolling off the assembly line in Honda’s Marysville, Ohio plant. This gift was handed out to Honda dealers in 1988.

The winner will be based on whose tale is closest to news reports as of September 1, 2012. If their are no updates on the case by then, the winner will be determined by whose prediction makes us laugh the most. Good luck!

Virgil Hilts
Virgil Hilts

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  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Jul 21, 2012

    The owner's kid "borrowed" it and took it to the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area southeast of the Salton Sea, west of Yuma. He was racing a dune buggy with it when it flipped over and became buried in the sand. The kid hitched a ride home and claimed no knowledge, saying he last saw it in the garage, then in the storage area, accounting for the two accounts. It won't be found until October, when a Santa Ana wind uncovers it and a dune buggy nearly crashes into it. The insurance company that paid off the owner will take possession and sell it at auction. Steven Lang will buy it, not running, for $1500, and get it running by replacing the sand-clogged air cleaner, and sell it to an elderly couple for $500 down and $50 a week. The couple will only use it for grocery shopping and to go to church. Eventually, repairs will cost too much and Sajeev will advise them to dump it and buy a Crown Vic. With no takers for it, the couple will junk it. Later, Murilee will spot it in a self-serve junkyard completely intact, and before Jack Baruth can get there to buy it, it will be crushed. However, Murilee will have salvaged the clock and installed it in his A100, so at least part of the car will live on.

  • Goggles Piazno Goggles Piazno on Mar 19, 2013

    Stolen by Dennis Rodman for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to keep the crazy nights a secret.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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