U.S. Customs and Border Patrol recovers Ferrari stolen in 1987

The recovered 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi. Photos courtesy U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach process an average of 500 vehicles per day for export. With that kind of volume, spotting a discrepancy in a VIN for a single automobile seems a highly unlikely occurrence, but on April 8, the efforts of astute CBP agents at the Port of Los Angeles helped to recover a 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi missing since 1987.

In processing the paperwork for a red 1982 Ferrari bound for shipment to Poland, the agents noticed a problem with the car's VIN. According to CBP records, a car carrying that number had already been exported from the United States to Norway in 2005, and hadn't been re-imported since.

Realizing the car required further inspection, the CBP enlisted the help of the California Highway Patrol's Investigative Services Unit and a National Insurance Crime Bureau agent working with the Foreign Export and Recovery (FEAR) Outbound Team. With the assistance of a Ferrari expert, the car in question was positively identified as a 1981 GTSi model, not a 1982 GTS model as indicated on the export paperwork. Further inspection revealed that the car at the Port of Los Angeles carried a VIN tag cloned from the Ferrari exported in 2005.

The Ferrari's legitimate VIN triggered a police report from July of 1987, when the car was reported as stolen from a consignment lot in Orange County, California. The car's then-owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, was compensated by his insurance company for the loss, which likely means the Ferrari will be reclaimed by the insurer.

The CBP states that the recovered Ferrari shows 45,000 miles on the odometer, and has a value of $50,000. That roughly corresponds with Hagerty Insurance's value assessment of $52,800 for a 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi in excellent condition, though there's no telling what kind of maintenance the car has seen over the past three decades.

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