You never know what will turn up in a container at the Long Beach port. Sure, the vast majority are filled with legal products bound for store shelves all across this great land. But every so often inspectors will find smuggled guns, drugs, humans . . .
. . . a Volkswagen Bus that was reported stolen in Washington more than 35 years ago.
]
Yep, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they examined a seaport container scheduled to be
exported to the Netherlands on Oct. 19 and found the 1965 VW Bus
inside.
A run of the VIN number on a law enforcement database revealed the vehicle had been reported stolen in Spokane, Washington, on July 12, 1974. And not only was it still running, it was in cherry condition.
Officials said the insurance company that currently owns the sweet ride has been notified about the seizure.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.