Stolen in France 889606

[BRB]

Last Friday I discovered that my car an 3.8 FHC, chassis 889606, was stolen from the underground garage in a neighbouring village I rent. Police traced the theft down to the night of 27-28th of September. I suspect it was a planned theft, since the garage next to mine was opened as well, but without anything being stolen. Also a rebuild moped, a classic Peugeot 104, was left in the garage untouched. Boxes were opened, possible to search for the steering wheel.

We spend from 2019 to 2022 to rebuild the car from the bare metal to basically a ''concours'' condition with some modifications to make the car more suitable for every day driving. The car was locked, had the removable steering wheel removed, the battery cut-off switch was off.

I updated the XKEdata webpage for the car. Perhaps this will make re-sellling the car more difficult in the future.

No need to describe how I feel.

[mgcjag]

Hi Jan..very sorry to hear this...iv edited your title to include the chassis number.... lets hope you get some good news soon...Steve

[Gfhug]

Jan, what awful news, especially after all the effort you’ve put into restoring the car.

Geoff

[DWW]

Sorry to hear the sad news and hope for a recovery sooner rather than later. This only goes to stress to anyone else who is storing their pride and joy on or especially off their premises to invest in a mobile cctv cam for about £100 and £5 per month for a prepaid SIM card.

[BRB]

Thank you Steve for the modification. Should have thought of this myself. Still a bit confused I suppose.

[richard btype]

That is heart breaking! all things crossed that this might be recovered....

[BRB]

Just for completeness, the update XKE database entry:
http://xkedata.com/cars/detail/?car=889606

[mgcjag]

Hi Jan.....just put up a post on Jag lovers...the more that know the better...Steve https://forums.jag-lovers.com/t/stolen- ... 606/438735

[DWW]

Steve, a small correction it is a 1964.

[cactusman]

I hope the car is found but sadly I'm not too optimistic....probably stolen to order. Time to remind everyone to think about security. Cctv. Big locks. Fit a tracker....they are not expensive....

[mgcjag]

Hi Danny....think you may find its manufacture date is 63..US title 64....I was going by Jan's signature 63 fhc.
Steve

[DWW]

Steve, your post in Jag Lovers said 1961.....

[dxke38]

This really hit home to me. This car is identical to mine apart from lhd instead of rhd. Must sort the security issues asap. Really hope you get it back.

[kashma77]

Hello Jan,
I am really sorry what happened to your car, hope they will find it soon.
Kindly regards
Ralf

[ralphr1780]

Hello Jan, very sorry reading your misfortune.
In which part of France it happened?
There must be close by some neighbour with cctv recording that could help investigation, you probably have to initiate own efforts as police may not deploy much from their side.
Wishing you all luck in tracing it and recovery.

[BRB]

Thank you all for the moral support. Thank you Steve in particular to post in on the other forum.

Indeed the car was produced in autumn 1963 but registered in 1964. It ended up in europe only in 2018 or 2019, after which we undertook its restoration in steps for it being finally complete by 2022. We still had some bucket list travel plans with the car, but it’s likely not to be.

The investigation by the police is indeed probably limited, but I do hope the insurance will make an effort. In this case the possibilities to obtain (or install in the future) CCTV information is low in this specific place. Instead I intend to contact specialised companies in Geneva (just across the border from here) which offer secure storage services. Certainly more expensive, but much better than ending up with an empty garage.

But I first need to digest the whole event before deciding if I am going to spend another 4 years rebuilding one again.