Have you ever had a car stolen? I live in a border city and if your car gets ripped off, you can pretty much assume its in Mexico and you’ll never see it again. Afterwards,  you have to crawl through the miles of red tape with your insurance company in hopes you’re covered and if youre lucky, you get a check and you give up your rights to what was once a your car… if its ever found.

Well, in the case of Terry Dietrich, that was all true until this past February when she was contacted after her Corvette was impounded by the North Carolina Police. Did I mention that her Vette was stolen 42 years ago?

In a case of stranger-than-fiction, Dietrichs car turned up only when a potential buyer was taking a closer look at the classic car. Gary Green, a car dealer and restorer, purchased the blue 1972 Corvette coupe from a local woman whose husband had just passed away. Green was familiar with the car, which he had seen driving around town since 1975. So familiar in fact, that he never thought to question its ownership. That changed when he purchased the car, gave it a closer look and quickly realized its VIN was for a 1969 Corvette convertible, not a 1972 coupe with the T-top roof. Green was devastated. How could a car he had seen, from a man he had known for 40 years, be stolen? Green notified the authorities and soon his Corvette was revealed to be the one stolen from the parking lot of Terry Dietrich’s employer in 1972. Who originally stole the car and how it was sold to the longtime owner is still unknown.

The only way the car could now be released was to provide a title matching the original VIN. This is where things get a bit cloudy in this story.

Terry never had the title to the car, as it was stolen long before it was paid off. For over 40 years the car’s disappearance remained an unsolved mystery, though Terry’s insurer, Allstate, had long since paid the claim for the car’s theft. Even the State of Georgia, which issued the original title back in 1972, can’t produce a copy of the document. So what claim does Dietrich have to get her old car back? Unfortunately, none.

Technically, the car belongs to Allstate because they paid out the claim long ago. The insurance giant has had little luck in arguing its case for ownership with the North Carolina DMV, so now they don’t even get the car back! Thats right, the woman who once owned it can’t get it because she accepted the settlement and the company that gave her the money for the car can’t even get it because they can’t produce the title. So whats next?

Unless a title is found or Dietrich or Allstate can secure a court order to release the car, it will eventually be sold at auction. I was hoping for a happy ending but it looks as though Dietrich cannot afford whatever price the car will fetch, so it looks as though for the second time in her life, she will have to say goodbye to her dream car.