The firetruck that could serve no more has found a caring home.

Once upon a time, in a land far from Hermosa Beach, there was a proud old German firetruck. It was big and powerful, with a long ladder on top. On its shiny hood was the famous Mercedes emblem.

But as shiny and powerful as it was, the truck was getting on in years, and the volunteer firefighters in Stadt Sindelfingen, its hometown, decided to sell it for a newer truck.

One day, a businessman from America--a Mercedes-Benz dealer named Vasek Polak--bought the elderly truck and shipped it across the ocean as a gift to the city of Hermosa Beach. But Hermosa Beach couldn’t use the old truck either, because its ladder wasn’t as strong as it used to be.

For three years, it sat in the Hermosa Beach firehouse, lonely and unused. The city even tried to auction it off, but no one seemed to want a 30-year-old firetruck.

Then, one day, the story of the unwanted firetruck reached a firetruck-lover in Castaic named Mark Scott. Scott isn’t a firefighter--he sells light bulbs for a living--but he is interested in old fire equipment and is a member of the San Francisco-based Society for Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America, which had passed the word about the truck.

The minute Scott set eyes on it, he said, he wanted to take it home.

“It’s unique,” Scott said. “It’s really well-built, and the interior is all oak wood. It’s very pretty, if you like firetrucks.”

So he gave the city $5,000 and drove away this week with the truck; both are apparently well on the way toward living happily ever after.

“Anywhere you go with one of these, you attract a lot of fun, a lot of smiles and a lot of kids,” Scott said. “I was parked at a Trader Joe’s the other day, and the neighborhood kids were going crazy.

“I’m not going to be fighting fires with it, but it will be preserved and well-cared for, and not sold for parts,” he added. “I’ve already been invited to do about six parades and fund-raising events.”