Stolen ’67 Mustang returned after 28 years; time for vanity plate

Some gifts shouldn’t wait for Christmas -- just ask Lynda Alsip.

On Monday, 28 years after someone stole Alsip’s 1967 Ford Mustang from her Salinas home, California Highway Patrol officers reunited the classic-car lover with her ride.

“This Mustang is finally galloping home to its rightful owner, just in time for the holidays!” the CHP Monterey office said on its Facebook page.

Alsip’s car was stolen in 1986 after she’d owned it for two years. She had just bought a customized license plate for the car – LYNDA67 – but never got to put it on, officials said.

But the car turned up recently at a local DMV office when someone tried to register it, officials said. That person was told to take it to a CHP office, where Officer Chris Menchen traced the Mustang to Alsip’s 1986 stolen car report.

On Monday, Alsip was reunited with the car, to which she will happily fasten the LYNDA67 license plate she kept all these years. Meanwhile, authorities are investigating how the Mustang came into the possession of the person who tried to register it with the DMV.

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