His 1934 Ford coupe was stolen 20 years ago. It’s been found two states away

It was the late 1950s, Modesto’s cruising era, and 13-year-old Ron Genasci didn’t want to wait to get his license before he bought his first car, a five-window 1934 Ford coupe.

Over the years he fixed it up into his dream hot rod, getting a custom blue paint job, having the dashboard rebuilt, moving the gas tank to the back, installing an exterior button to open the suicide doors and adding chrome spoke wheels.

“I’d polish it once a week; it was pretty shiny,” Genasci said. “When it would rain the water would bead off that thing.”

Genasci and his friends spent countless nights cruising 10th and 11th streets in downtown Modesto and he kept the car well after the tradition became illegal save for the annual Graffiti Parade.

But in 1997 the Ford was stolen from his family’s ranch on Grayson Road south of Modesto where it was stored.

“I was heartbroken,” Genasci said. The officer who took the report told him he’d probably never see the Ford again; it was probably in Mexico.

Still, Genasci searched for his Ford every year at the auto swap meet in Turlock, for any recognizable parts like his prized dashboard built by the automotive customizer Gene Witfield who later drew fame for his work on automobiles in movies and television.

“I went down there every year because I was so sick about it,” he said.

He thought about the Ford over the years; just Tuesday he was telling a friend about the 1934 Ford coupe he used to own.

That same day Genasci was in for a huge surprise.

When he opened the front door of his home in Riverbank, a card fell to the ground. The card had the name and number for Detective Kyle Briggs.

“When I started talking to (Genasci) I said, ‘I have good news and bad news for you,’” said Briggs, a Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputy assigned to the Stanislaus County Auto Theft Task Force. “I asked him, ‘did you by any chance have a 1934 Ford stolen 20 years ago?’ and he said, ‘Yes, I did.’ I told him, ‘It has been recovered; the bad news is that it is up in the state of Washington and you have to go pick it up.’”

“I was floored,” Genasci said Wednesday. “I am sitting here talking to you now and I still can’t believe it.”

The vehicle turned up in Marysville, Wash., when a man brought it to a Washington State Patrol district office for a VIN inspection. When an inspection officer ran the VIN number it came back stolen.

Briggs said even though every state purges its auto theft reports after a few years, the National Insurance Crime Bureau maintains a database for all stolen vehicles no matter how long ago they were stolen.

The Washington man told the inspection officer he bought the Ford four years ago from a person who said he got it at an estate sale. Officials don’t believe he knew the car was stolen, said Washington State Trooper Heather Axtman. She said detectives are looking into where the car was all those years before but she said it’s very unlikely a suspect will be identified at this point.

Genasci was sent a photo of the Ford. He said his hot rod is now more suitable for the drag strip than the cruising streets.

It still has the custom blue paint job that he helped pay for by working at the paint shop in the 1960s. The dashboard was the same but had been painted a different color. The button for the suicide doors was still there. But some serious work and money had been put into the vehicle; most notably the hood was removed to expose a giant, new engine.

Axtman did not know Friday whether the man who bought the vehicle four years ago would be able to keep any of the parts he purchased.

On Wednesday Genasci reminisced about cruising with his friends, about driving the Ford on his parents’ ranch before he was old enough to drive it on the street and the time he got pulled over on his way to the bowling alley.

The officer “said my car was too low and I said no and he got out his tape measure and it was right on the money,” Genasci said.

Though he can’t recall his name, Genasci still can picture the face of the Modesto High student he bought the Ford from for $350.

He said the kid let him keep the Ford and start working on it before he could pay him in full.

“Back in those days you could shake someone’s hand and they would believe what you would tell them,” Genasci said.

He is still trying to figure out how to get the Ford back home but thinks he’ll probably hire a hauling company.

Asked what he will do when he gets it back Genasci said, “I don’t know if it’s is even street legal (in California). I will either make it street legal or … he chuckled, “I’ll go out and polish it every once in a while.”