Categories | Health & Medicine Article

Thief Steals Rare Vehicle, Disguises It in a Different Color

August 3rd, 2017 • Health & Medicine • 2 minute read
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Author Sara E. Teller

Thief Steals Rare Vehicle, Disguises It in a Different Color

Police recently arrested a thief from Iowa after he allegedly stole a rare vehicle from Marshall County Supervisor Steve Salasek and tried to disguise it by covering it in a different paint color.  “I went to go get it out of the storage shed, and it was gone,” Salasek said of the yellow 1966 Ford GT40 replica. “It wasn’t there.”  Salasek panicked.  It was his dream car.  He figured it was long gone.But, it turns out, the car wasn’t so far away after all.  Police arrested 48-year-old Patrick Allen Chamberlain on Thursday after they noticed him driving it around, crudely painted a black color. Marshalltown police Chief Michael Tupper said they were tipped off after residents noticed bits of the original yellow color through the crude paint job and reported their suspicions.  The color was spotted all around the car’s base.  "If it hadn't been for the community's involvement and interest in this story, we probably would not have found the car," Tupper said.  

Thief Steals Rare Vehicle, Disguises It in a Different ColorImage Courtesy of KCCI.com

Chamberlin was charged with theft, possession of a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia and several traffic offenses. Evidently, the thief had a long rap sheet.  Police aren’t sure whether Chamberlain painted the car himself or had someone else do the handy work.  One thing's for certain.  It was a quick and dirty job with little technical expertise.  Salasek hopes to restore the car back to its original state before the incident.  “One way or another, it’ll come back to life,” he said assuredly.  Nothing a little more dough can’t handle.

Sources:

Police say thief used bad paint job to hide stolen eye-catching carEager Car Thief's Spray Paint Job Fails to Cover Up CrimeFord GT40 sells for record-setting price for U.S. carHemmings: The World's Largest Collector Car Marketplace
Sara E. Teller

About Sara E. Teller

Sara is a credited freelance writer, editor, contributor, and essayist, as well as a novelist and poet with nearly twenty years of experience. A seasoned publishing professional, she's worked for newspapers, magazines and book publishers in content digitization, editorial, acquisitions and intellectual property. Sara has been an invited speaker at a Careers in Publishing & Authorship event at Michigan State University and a Reading and Writing Instructor at Sylvan Learning Center. She has an MBA degree with a concentration in Marketing and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, graduating with a 4.2/4.0 GPA. She is also a member of Chi Sigma Iota and a 2020 recipient of the Donald D. Davis scholarship recognizing social responsibility. Sara is certified in children's book writing, HTML coding and social media marketing. Her fifth book, PTSD: Healing from the Inside Out, was released in September 2019 and is available on Amazon. You can find her others books there, too, including Narcissistic Abuse: A Survival Guide, released in December 2017.

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