This was hardly a joyride for Bob Russell.
But nearly 42 years after someone stole his 1967 Austin Healey 3000 from a Philadelphia apartment complex, the Southlake sleuth is back in the driver’s seat.
“That was quite the knockdown-dragout,” Russell said of the decades-long search that finally turned up his British sports car at a California car dealership in mid-May.
Russell, 66, a retired sales manager, spent years surfing the Internet looking for his car and eyeing similar Healeys on the road.
Still, he didn’t hold out much hope of ever finding the vehicle he paid a friend $3,000 for back in 1968, only to find it stolen the morning after taking his future wife out on their second date.
“The fact that the car still exists is improbable,” he said. “It could have been junked or wrecked.”
Instead, it was listed for sale by a dealer in an online auction, which is where a restless Russell came across it when he rolled out of bed a few weeks ago and wandered onto eBay.
“Ever since eBay showed up, I’d check it periodically,” Russell said. “I checked it on Friday, May 11, and there it was.”
He immediately called the dealer, the Beverly Hills Car Club, and sounded the alarm.