DRIVING : Yesterday’s Car, Today’s Crime

When John Parks of Dunlap, Ill., set out to build a replica of the 1893 Duryea, it was to commemorate the first century of motoring, not examine its grayer consequences.

Parks, a former designer for GM and Caterpillar, spent 30 months and $20,000 on his centennial Duryea. The car was a superb copy of the first gasoline-powered auto.

A 9-horsepower golf cart engine was about the only concession to 1993. Parks fitted the Duryea with a sound system that broadcast the ker-chugga! noises of the original single-cylinder engine.

Parks recently left Illinois for Los Angeles and a six-city promotional tour. He made it to Tulsa and checked into a motel. In the wee hours, someone stole Park’s Chevy Blazer and a trailer carting the Duryea.

Parks feared the worst. Certainly nobody would be able to sell it.

Wrong. Tulsa police recovered the trailer outside a local crack house. The Blazer was located in a hospital parking lot. And the Duryea, unscathed, was found in the possession of a man who swore on Henry Ford’s grave that he bought it for $3,000 from a man who didn’t mention it was stolen.

“Tulsa police believe the Duryea was bought and sold at least three times before it was recovered,” Parks said. “Apparently drug dealers steal everything and can sell anything.”