What a strange direction this van's story took... from neglected, to stolen, to restored, to stolen and stripped, and now, it's going to be neglected again

the people that owned it since 1980, a year after it was in the movie "Van Nuys Blvd", had left it on their vacation property in Lancaster Ca, north of the mountains that border Los Angeles on the North.

There had been a wild fire that burned down the house on the property, and scorched the van a bit too.

They only went to the property occasionally, every 2 or 3 years, but hey - what difference does that make? Well, the neighbors stated that they thought the place was abandoned, and the owners dead, and since there was no evidence to the contrary, they opened the gate for the guy, and helped him load the van.

Well, the above photo was taken by a guy out walking his dog, and once it got on the internet, this iconic van (to some who are VERY nostaligic for the vanning days of the 70s) became the obsession of one guy in Illinois.

So he came out to California with a trailer and hauled it back to Illinois,

and blew a lot of money restoring it. He even had a go fund me page, and people and companies donated parts like tires, rims, and bubbletop sunroof.

then, in Sept 2018, the van leads a convoy of van enthusiasts to California to cruise Van Nuys one more time.

The van gets stolen, stripped, and abandonded

Now, the rightful owners who'd neglected it on their property claim they were going to donate it to a museum, and we all realize that's bullshit face saving nonsense...

and the guy that stole it and restored it has been busted for grand theft. But he's suing the owners, and claiming it belongs to him.

Well, by her own statement "(The van) wasn’t abandoned,” she said. “It was never ‘lost.’ It’s just that we didn’t have the funds to restore it.”  it's undoubtedly better off that it was stolen the first time, and now that it's been stolen and recovered a 2nd time, the bullshit about it's being donated will be tested.

For the moment, all the court cases as to it's ownership and theft have to get worked out.

https://www.bnd.com/news/local/article221769570.html
https://www.bnd.com/news/local/article199977354.html

follow up, may 2019 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/05/a-non-iconic-vehicle-that-played-bit.html