License Tag of Stolen Car Said, ‘Stolen Car’

“I always thought it would be funny if something like this ever happened,” Sheriff’s Capt. Jack Devereaux mused on Thursday.

“I’ve taken a lot of ribbing today . . . . After I had my second cup of coffee this morning, I could laugh about it, too.”

That the license plate of the car was a dead giveaway probably went unnoticed by whoever stole Devereaux’s black 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass sometime between 11:45 p.m. Wednesday and the crack of dawn Thursday.

The license plate reads “503”--a police radio code for a stolen car.

Around lunchtime Thursday, someone reported that the car--or most of it--was parked near Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue in Santa Ana, Devereaux said.

Car Thief Was Selective

A brand new set of tires was left intact, but the dashboard was taken apart, and a spare tire, a CB radio, antenna and the car’s grills were removed. But the fenders, which also were removed, rendered the car undriveable, Devereaux said. “When they took the fenders off, there was nothing to keep the hood down.”

“We found about 85% of it,” he said. “As soon as I called Santa Ana PD, they started laughing about the license plate . . . . A lot of the people over there recognized it (as mine).”

Devereaux, who runs the sheriff’s investigation bureau, said he bought the car--with the 503 plate--several years ago from another investigator. “No one else but a police officer would know what it meant, but the funny thing is (that) the reason you run a license plate is to see if it’s stolen.”