Artist, Owner Stung by ‘Scorpion Car’ Towing

A fiery-red 1969 Mercury Marquis--whose scorpion design was supposed to draw patrons to a downtown Ventura art show--was towed because it was not registered to be driven.

“We knew we were wrong,” said artist M.B. Hanrahan, whose photographs and paintings were on display on the second floor at Natalie’s Fine Threads. “And we can’t fault the police for that. But our whole trip was that the situation was very antagonistic and we got little recognition for our art car. People love that car.”

Hanrahan, who designed the modified car, and the vehicle’s owner, Paul Lindhard, drove the scorpion-mobile to Natalie’s, on the corner of Main and Chestnut streets, about 6 a.m. Saturday to attract patrons to the art show that night.

Store owner Natalie Siman said she got verbal permission from the city’s traffic department last week to park the oversized car there--and take up three spaces--for the entire day, as long as it was gone by Sunday morning.

Late Saturday morning, Ventura Police Officer Tim Brooks got a call complaining about the car, named “Metamorphosis.” He said that Siman had no paperwork to prove she had a permit. He also ran the car’s license plate number through the Department of Motor Vehicles and learned that the vehicle had not been registered since 1994, he said.

“A car is subject to be impounded after six months of not being registered,” Brooks said. “It’s not fair to those who pay. An officer can always use [his or her] discretion, but that’s usually if a car hasn’t been registered for less than a year.”

Brooks called R & R Towing, which lifted the car onto a flatbed truck and took it to its impound yard.

Lindhard, who also owns Art City Sculpture Supplies, described the vehicle’s non-registration as “stretching a technicality.”

The art car was sitting in a yard--not in use--for three years, he said. But in April, Lindhard said, he paid about $300 in penalties, got the vehicle smog-tested, and was on his way to registering his car while trying to get historical license plates for it.

“But it took a review board in Sacramento five months to tell me they were denying me the plates,” he said.

Lindhard said he got two temporary registrations from the DMV for July and August. But because of personal and business matters, Lindhard said, he “lost momentum” and “dropped the ball.”

“Yes, I’m a paper disaster, what do you want?” he said. “But I’m not a scofflaw.”