Woman reunited with car stolen nearly 30 years ago

SALINAS, Calif. (AP) - A California woman was reunited with her classic Ford Mustang nearly 30 years after it was stolen, when a man tried to register the muscle car at a Department of Motor Vehicles office.

Lynda Alsip said she couldn't ask for a better Christmas present than the return of her forest-green 1967 Mustang, the Monterey County Herald reported (http://bit.ly/1xHUkxB ) Monday

"I never thought I would see it again," she told the Herald, standing in a Salinas tow yard next to her car. "It's like winning the lottery."

She bought the car for $800 in 1985 when she was 17 years old. About a year later, it was stolen outside her Salinas apartment complex.

Police say the vehicle was found at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Salinas in September when a man tried to register the car he had for 23 years. Authorities were investigating whether the man knew it was stolen.

"It had been out of the system for so long that it came back with no file," California Highway Patrol Officer Jaime Rios said. "The officer did some digging and found out the car was stolen in 1986 from Salinas."

Alsip, who now lives in the central California valley town of Hollister, plans to have some work done on the car then show off her original personalized license plate, "LYNDA67."

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Information from: The Monterey County Herald, http://www.montereyherald.com