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A Buried Ferrari

A Buried Ferrari

We’ve just stumbled across this truly fantastic story regarding a buried Ferrari. This will blow you away. It all starts with a group of young boys playing in their back yard, innocently digging for hidden treasure. We’ve all done it. But what they didn’t expect to find was just that. A real hidden treasure. This happened in 1978 in West Athens, Los Angeles. The boys were digging when they struck what felt like a hard surface, so bravely they dug a little more and discovered it felt & looked like a car roof. A bit worried, and more than likely quite scared, at what could be in there, they flagged down a sheriffs car and thats where it all began.

 

The Sheriff arranged for the buried object to be dug up and it took a small team to unearth what looked like a car, but what they didn’t expect to find was that car was in fact a Ferrari Dino. Not something you would expect to find 6ft under the ground, but why was it there? Was something inside? Luckily the car was empty. The metallic green Dino 246 GTS, was in great condition considering it had been covered in soil for over 4 years. When authorities looked into the history of the car, they discovered it had been bought in October 1974 by a person named R Cruz from California. The weird thing is Cruz had in fact reported the car stolen in December 1974 in what may have been a fraudulent attempt at an insurance scam or indeed a genuine theft. Who knows?

Ferrari Dino Unearthed

So the question remains, how did it get there? And why? When the detective asked the current residents of the house if they knew anything, they replied that they’d only lived there for 3 months and the neighbours hadn’t seen or heard anything odd going on which baffled the detective. How could you not hear or see a car being buried? Weird don’t you think?

With the case going stone cold and no major leads to follow, the final police report would be “righteous theft” which meant the insurance company could pay out a total of $22,500 to the legal owner, the Bank of America in Hollywood. But that didn’t stop Greg Sharp, a writer for AutoWeek. In 1986 he looked into the cars history a little further and discovered the car was bought by a plumber in LA, for his wife as a Birthday present. On the 7th December, their Anniversary, they visited the Brown Derby restaurant, they left the car with Valet parkers, who were more than happy to be left with this beauty in their care and the couple soon discovered the car missing when they returned to go home.

A buried Ferrari restored |The Private Plate Co.jpgSo what happened to the couple when the story broke news? Did they ever get to see their beloved car again? We know it was then restored to its former glory and was re-registered with the personalised number plate “DUG UP”. Here’s a picture of it now.

If you have a Ferrari and would like to add personalised number plates, we have hundreds of private number plates available from models like 328, 348, 355 etc etc or even FER number plates. Please visit The Private Plate Company or call us on 01639 888833 and we will be happy to help you find your perfect Ferrari number plates.