Artist’s Van Found in National City
A Vista artist whose van was stolen from a San Diego hotel last weekend along with hundreds of pieces of artwork learned Wednesday that the vehicle has been recovered on a street in National City--without some of the art.
“It’s wonderful,” artist John Jennings said. “The police, they worked fast.”
Jennings had driven the battered 5-year-old van to a Holiday Inn on Aero Drive in Kearny Mesa to attend a meeting with two movie scriptwriters. He returned to find the van missing, along with scores of lithographs and slides of his marine environmental art.
Jennings said the thieves made off with about 80 lithographs but apparently did not find 150 others hidden in the van. The slides also were recovered, he said.
The artist said that, as a result of the find, his plan to paint a 16-by-45-foot mural free of charge for the city of Oceanside is on schedule for this month.
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