Car Called Tough to Hide, Ride or Resell : Roadblocks Lie Ahead for Stutz Thief
It’s hard to imagine where a thief might hide an antique, convertible sports car with wooden-spoke wheels, green engine, brass carburetor and a price tag of at least $72,000.
But it’s a problem both police and automobile connoisseurs thought long and hard about Monday.
“It’s kind of hard to drive such a car around inconspicuously,” said San Diego Police Lt. Charles Grimm.
‘Stick Out Like Sore Thumb’
Garry Saylor, owner of Classic Car Co., said, “It’s not like you can change the plates on it and drive it around. It’s so obvious a car like that is stolen, you would stick out like a sore thumb.”
Richard Allen Kraft hopes such flamboyance will lead to his car’s return.
Kraft and his family--who live in Ranchos Penasquitos--left their home a few days ago for a weekend trip. When they returned Sunday, Kraft discovered that his 1923 Stutz Roadster, which he claims is worth $150,000, had been stolen from his garage, said Grimm, who heads the auto-theft division of the San Diego police.
The antique is light gray over maroon with a black, cloth top, and has two wooden-spoke spares, one mounted on each side of the car behind the front fenders. An ornament on the radiator reads, “Made Good in a Day”--a slogan sparked by the car’s successful completion of the Indianapolis 500 in the early 1910s.
Such Thefts Called Rare
“To my knowledge, it’s the first time since I’ve been around that such an expensive, private sports car was stolen in this city,” said Grimm, who has handled auto thefts for eight years.
“Usually, such cars are held in private compounds and aren’t very easy to steal.”
Kraft said his garage didn’t have an alarm system but that the door was always locked.
He said his garage door is windowless and that the car was always covered. In fact, he kept it so well-concealed that his next-door neighbor said she never knew he owned such an antique.
“No one here even knew he had it,” said Jennifer Stahl, who has lived next door to Kraft for two years.
Kraft said he always had a love for cars and bought the roadster about 2 1/2 years ago.
“I bought it from an acquaintance who had just started to restore it,” Kraft said, noting that he had restored about 90% of the car. “At the time, I thought it was a nice thing to have. It was just something I had always wanted to do and I did it.”
As valuable as the roadster may be, Kraft, police and connoisseurs are perplexed as to why someone would steal such a car.
‘A Very Unusual Criminal’
“It would have to be a very unusual criminal, even a somewhat stupid one to steal such a car,” Saylor said.
“Word of such a theft would spread so quickly that no one would think about trying to pick it up. There is no international market for such cars, and you wouldn’t break it and sell it for parts.
“The Stutz is for the rich man who collects it like a toy and hoards it in his collection or shows it off. There’s not much else you can do with it.”
The roadster gained fame in the Roaring ‘20s as a “sporty, race-about car for the rich,” said Ray Borges, automotive librarian and historian for Harrah’s Automobile Museum in Reno, Nev. Borges said a “showroom condition” roadster would sell for $72,000.
The roadster, manufactured by the Stutz Motor Car Co. of America, first appeared about 1913.
