At what point does a car become more than a car? Americans, perhaps more than any other nation on the planet, have formed a deep, emotional bond with the automobile. We race cars, we drive them across country, and we labor day in and day out fixing and improving vehicles, whether it’s the family minivan or a cherry red Ford Mustang. So when somebody steals your car, it can be emotionally devastating as the vessel through which many memories were conceived is stolen from our lives.
Sometimes though, these stories have a happy ending (at least for the victim). The Livingston Daily reports that an Ann Arbor man was recently arrested and convicted of stealing a red 1991 Mustang GT and trailer from a Ford dealership lot.
The car belonged to Matt Stanford, an employee at the dealership who had locked the car up behind chained gates. The crafty thief cut the chains and made off with both car and trailer, leaving Stanford to pick up the pieces. The Mustang was a streetable racer that Stanford had driven all over the country. He had invested countless hours and dollars into the Mustang over the last seven years, and a thief made off with it over night.
However, due diligence from the Ann Arbor police paid off, as an officer ran the plates on a Mustang matching the description at a local car wash. The plates came back to a Jeep Wrangler, and police were able to arrest the thief, who turned out to be a habitual offender. The thief later returned to the scene of the crime with Stanford’s straps and an apology for stealing the car (ain’t that nice of him) but Stanford told him to get lost. A judge sentenced the thief to up to 20 years behind bars for theft of the vehicle and trailer. Justice served, or too harsh a sentence?