a non iconic vehicle that played a bit part in a forgettable movie is back in the news, for the last time is my guess. The Wild Cherry van case is done in court, and the parties have signed off on a deal.

summed up, the woman who seemed to own it, who left it on her property in the desert, for a couple decades when a tree fell on it, and a wild fire burned it, seems to have lost in court, as the judge is allowing the guy who tracked it down and towed it home, and restored it.

Now, that's a way cool judge. Obviously it's grand theft auto at face value, but, if the judge didn't see it that way, then I'm thinking he's got the full evidence file in front of him, and not journalism that is deliberately telling a story for best effect.

Maybe the police did tell the can thief that it was abandoned, and maybe the cop did unlock the gate and help him load it.

But they still went through a locked gate onto private property to get the van.

So, the judge put charges on hold, the thief keeps the van, the upset woman who used to own it claims her health has suffered due to this whole issue, and she gets paid $5000. Since she seems to have agreed to this, I can't relate to any bitching she does after this

the police get $1000 for storage fees, because the van was discovered stripped and grafittied on LA streets after the thief was arrested.

Did he strip it, tag it with spray cans, and keep the parts over at some buddies house? Probably. After all, when faced with giving back this van to prior owners, wouldn't you undo as much of the work and parts you'd paid for to get this van, and then let them get it back like it it was when you found it?

Evidence that the thief knew he was operating outside the legal norm, is that he went to Florida to get it titled without proof of legal ownership, then used that registration when he got back to Illinois, where a second title was issued based on information from the Florida title.

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/05/17/plea-deal-infuriates-owner-of-the-wild-cherry-van
https://www.bnd.com/news/local/article230467174.html

Original post at https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/12/what-strange-direction-this-vans-story.html if you want the background long form story about this van

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/02/12/more-charges-in-wild-cherry-van-case