Retired lawyer Ivan Schneider, 82, thought that someone must have been pulling a prank on him when he was told that he would be reunited with his long lost love after 46 years.
That first love happened to be a 1967 Jaguar E-type convertible, which was the first luxury car he had purchased for $15,000 after he won a big case in New York City.
Alas, his beauty was stolen from him just six months later, on the morning of March 1968.
"I walked up and down Madison Avenue, then up and down 5th Avenue, and it wasn't there. I was heartbroken," Schneider said in an interview on Sept. 17.
He never dreamed he would be able to see his beloved sports car again.
Although he had purchased other luxury and exotic cars over the years, he never forgot his first love, and often told people that she was the prettiest of all the great cars he ever owned.
But a miracle happened when during a routine check at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport last month, authorities got a hot hit on one of the cars in a cargo shipment enroute to the Netherlands. It was none other than Schneider's stolen 1967 Jaguar XKE.
According to reports, the car was one of four vehicles located in late August that had been reported missing or stolen and were already at sea, being shipped to Sweden, the Netherlands, and the Philippines.
Arrangements were made for the cargo to be returned to the port complex in Southern California. Authorities at the port opened the container and positively identified the long lost Jag belonging to Schneider with white paint covering its original gray exterior.
Michael Maleta, an investigator with the California Highway Patrol who has been involved with locating stolen vehicles for the past 12 years, said that Schneider's Jaguar was being shipped to a buyer in Europe by a man in Southern California who had owned it for three months. Before him, the car was owned by someone in San Joaquin Valley who owned it for four decades.
More paperwork will need to be completed before the car can finally be returned to Schneider in Florida, where he now resides. The reunion could take place within a week.
Schneider is ecstatic at seeing his first love again. He said her exterior is still in good shape but the insides are old, rusty, and scratched. He plans to bring her back for refurbishing in New York to get her back to exactly how he remembered her 46 years ago when he first drove her.
