U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the California Highway Patrol, the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the New York City Police Department joined forces in recovering the stolen Corvette before it was shipped from the Port of Long Beach, Calif., to its new owner in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Corvette’s saga began on January 22, 1969, when the NYPD took a stolen vehicle report from Poster. On January 3, 2006, almost 37 years to the day that the Corvette was stolen, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s LA/Long Beach seaport Outbound Enforcement Team along with the California Highway Patrol’s Foreign Export and Recovery Team and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, seized the Corvette on a routine inspection of a shipping container destined for Sweden. The new owner, a Stockholm resident, had purchased the car for $10,000, not knowing that the car was stolen.

“This is a miracle,” said Alan Poster, the Corvette’s rightful owner, when law enforcement officials told him that his car had been recovered. He saw his car for the first time since 1969 at a CBP warehouse in Carson, Calif. on January 17. Poster was living in New York City when his Corvette was stolen in 1969 but now lives in Petaluma, Calif., a mere 70 miles from the CBP warehouse.

Preventing illegal exportation
“You may not be able to get your kicks on Route 66 anymore, but we got a kick out of assisting in the recovery of this classic car,” said Kevin Weeks, Los Angeles director of field operations for CBP. “Americans love their cars,” he added, “Customs and Border Protection helps fuel that love by maintaining productive partnerships with our state and local counterparts in preventing the illegal exportation of stolen vehicles.”

Over the past three decades the Corvette endured what car purists would probably describe as abuse. Originally sporting a blue exterior and interior, it is now silver and red respectively; the original 327-cubic-inch engine has been replaced by a 454 big block Chevy engine; a stolen automatic transmission, that wasn’t introduced until the mid 1980s, has replaced the original transmission; and the gas tank is missing.

But the car’s classic design has survived and will roar once again. Recently Harlan Charles, a Corvette product manager from General Motors, donated GM restoration parts worth $2,500 to Poster so that he could hit the open road once again, even if it will be a little later than he planned.