Just seen this on the BBC website. Technology at work. I bet the guy has a smile a mile wide.

Healy recovered

I bet the dealer / seller is as sick as the proverbial.

A Distributor of mine, living in an Apartment had his road race cycle stolen from his Garage that was in a block separate from his abode.

With a value of app £800.00 he contacted the police and filed the usual report for a stolen item, thinking that was the end.

More than a year later he received a phone call from a customer (spray-Painter) that had gone in to buying and selling Cycles as an addition to his Paint work shop.

The Guy requested that my Distributor take products home with him and he would collect and pay for them after office hours.

Guy pulls up with an estate car full of (u have guessed it) pedal cycles.

Distributor looks in the back of the car and spots his cycle he had had stolen.

Quick thinking instead of shouting alloud (THATS MY BIKE) he retained calm and asked if the Guy wouldn't mind letting him have a go on it with the view to purchase.

Sure, the Guy duly pulls out the cycle, my Distributor walks off to his abode and locks the bike away, returns to the car and explains that the bike was his and it had been stolen , The Guy suggests he was innocent and had been caught up in the fraud, however i will let you have it for £100.00 instead of the £300.00 i would ask any one else he suggested

My distributor replied, I could always call the police if you want to contest it.

The Guy didn't argue.... Why would he. I love a good ending, don't you

Nice ending.....But doesn't this get complicated when you've had an insurance payout?

Amazing story...Interesting point about insurance, Dave.

If you've had an insurance payout, then the recovered item is legally the property of the insurance company.

Always good to hear a happy ending but insurance does complicate it somewhat.
I remember the Police contacting a friend to say they'd found his A35. We rushed over, naive lads,to find kids jumping up and down on a stripped out body shell in the middle of a park near Slough. Come friendly bombs!

In the situation with a vehicle, the insurance companies are usaully simpathetic and ask only for a perscentage of the value to pass the vehicle back to the original owner, however in the case of the healey it might be somewhat different if they are aware they can realise a very high profit.!!!!

In the case of the Healey, the car is in the the USA and may well have not been insured against theft. The guy still had the title document and normally that would have been surrendered to the insurgence company when/if they paid out.

I'd be very surprised if it was worth as little as $23,000 if a roadworthy example too.

I suppose that most owners wouldn't have a clue which insurance company was involved that long ago anyway. And records from 1970 would be either destroyed or archived in an impossible format (bundles of paper).

Or the payout in 1970 would be worth refunding and keeping the car...could be a good investment if the figures in the article are to be believed....