I saw this ad on Craig's List for a red 88 convertible for sale in Santa Monica and remembered seeing an earlier post about one stolen. phone number is 310-483-9277 and 310-916-3084. Here's the ad

http://losangeles.craigslis...t/cto/792894532.html

Is this the one?

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/071065.html

That sure looks like the car.

Bump to keep it at the top.

I can not get on craigslist... Maybe someone could get a vin number from the seller - carfax search, something. It sure looks like the same car to me.

Just sent the buyer an email saying I am interested in it and would like the VIN so that I could get my insurance company the info in case I decide to fly out and drive it home.
Now...time will tell if I will get the info and if it is the same VIN.

Wow this could be interesting !

If someone were close i would set up a meeting with the guy to view the car and check the VIN in person myself, otherwise he might get jumpy if you start out asking for VINs right off the bat before anything else.

If the car is stolen he is going to be evasive about giving you the VIN or give u a phony one.

After checking the VIN set it up with someone else you will call and pretend you are calling your wife or gf to come look at the car, and have that person call and show up with the police !

[This message has been edited by exoticse (edited 08-12-2008).]

I agree with the idea that if it is stolen (and IF the current owner is aware of that fact), that the VIN will be a touchy subject. That is why I thought it would be a good idea for me to try it simply b/c I am out of state and I need the VIN for my insurance agency to begin the process of possibly having it on my insurance.
I followed that same procedure with the 88 GT I recently purchased out of state and had the insurance card with the proper VIN when I picked it up and had the card with me for the long long long drive home.

That HAS to be it!

Hard to tell in the pictures. There are a handful of things that would give it away for certain. I emailed Steve Moorehead.

I'll call the cops too.

Good eyes gentlemen!

quote Originally posted by Toddster: Hard to tell in the pictures. There are a handful of things that would give it away for certain. I emailed Steve Moorehead.

Yeah - I can't tell if it has the third brake light on the wing or not. I emailed Steve this morning as well, but have not heard back.

Cops - useless during the times you need them....can't get rid of them when you don't. ---I am friends with ALL of our local officers (City PD, Sherriff's Dept, and Prison Guards) so I know I can have fun with them every once in a while...and the favor is often returned (they have had a blast pulling me over in my new Fiero...those brats! )

quote Originally posted by CenTexIndy: Yeah - I can't tell if it has the third brake light on the wing or not.

What else could that be?

What concerns me is that it appears to have a California License Plate and Steve's car had one from Kentucky. That means the VIN number has probably been swapped. Not that that will be hard to prove but it will slow up the process.

stolen plates?

He also said it has passed smog which means that paperwork has all been pushed through the system. I hope that it is Steve's car and is returned to him but if it is, someone sure knows how to beat the system.

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The 6th Annual California Coast Run
October 24-26, 2008

quote Originally posted by jaskispyder: stolen plates?

I doubt he could get away with trying to sell it with stolen plates. If California you need the title and a bill or sale with an odometer statement in order to transfer ownership. It wouldn't take two seconds to spot a VIN number contradiction. My guess is that he got the VIN plates off a cheap Fiero somewhere with a clean title and swapped everything over. The problem is that VIN plates are held in by special rosette style rivets which are hard to get. HE may have used the originals and used epoxy to hold together. I would first check the secondary plate to see if it have been altered before doing the rest of the search. The VIN on the engine will be the dead give away. I'll bet he didn't change that!

quote Originally posted by Emc209i: What else could that be?

Looks like it to me...but it could also be a shadow.

Get me the VIN or somebody confirm the plate # - I will run an immediate KSR at my dealership and confirm

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Recanizin' Flat-Buns Since 2001

Eric Nelson
Internet Sales Manager
Power Ford Valencia
nelsone@autonation.com

Suggestion - DON'T call the numbers in the ad. We need for STEVE to go check this out, then he needs to report the car as being stolen and found to the police.

I have an old phone number for Steve. Could someone please call him and tell him about this?

I finally got through to the Detectives Department of the Santa Monica Police Department and left a VM for Detective Lambert. That's the best I have been able to do so far. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Just called Chris West, appearently NO ONE has any means of getting ahold of Moorehead

quote Originally posted by Toddster: I finally got through to the Detectives Department of the Santa Monica Police Department and left a VM for Detective Lambert. That's the best I have been able to do so far. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Hey, Todd. I assume that Steve filled out a police report of some kind. Can your detective look that up? They should have contact info for Steve in the file.

quote Originally posted by fierobear: Hey, Todd. I assume that Steve filled out a police report of some kind. Can your detective look that up? They should have contact info for Steve in the file.

I assume so but I am not sure which police department he filled the report with or whether they all talk to each other or not. I did email Steve though so hopefully he will get it soon and jump on this.

I'm calling my way through the Westfest database, hoping someone will have his phone number.

PaulJK - Dude, I know we have had issues in the past, but good job man - WELL DONE and GOOD EYE!!!

quote Originally posted by Chicken McNizzle: All I have is Steve's snmfx@yahoo.com address - and I know that one is as old as the hills so I can imagine it is probably not checked all that often if not anymore, kinda wish his dumbass wasn't banned from the forum

I have his current email address but not his phone number. I sent an email so all we can do it wait. Hopefully the cops know how to get in touch with him.

Chris West just called me. He had been talking to someone with the police, I think he said in Marina Del Rey. He needed the license plate number. I found two pictures I had of the car with the license plate, one from 2005 when I was trying to buy the car and the one from the 2006 Westfest that someone took and posted in the older thread about the car being stolen. I sent the pictures to Chris, and he's going to pass on the info to the police.

I just need the current plate number in the above pics OR the VIN number from the advertised car in the above pics, no one has pretended to be a potential buyer yet and called?

I can confirm in 30 seconds if its his car as long as I have the plate of VIN

nice detective work guys...

I may be imagining things... but the last thread I saw with a smfx post... did it say he had been banned?
- or did I make that up?

quote Originally posted by Chicken McNizzle: I just need the current plate number in the above pics OR the VIN number from the advertised car in the above pics, no one has pretended to be a potential buyer yet and called? I can confirm in 30 seconds if its his car as long as I have the plate of VIN

It's not a good idea to call the seller. We need to get in touch with Steve, and have him call the police. Otherwise, we might spook the seller, and the car would disappear.

We don't have a VIN for the car. I don't know what the current plate is, and whether either plate I have is the one that was on the car when it was stolen. We REALLY need to talk to Steve, but noone has his phone number.

Wow!! Cool that you found it.

Hopefully it's the correct car.

Keep us posted. (careful not to let the guy know/scare him away until Steve can show up with cops.)

Dammit - can't run a history on an out of state plate - can anyone clean up the above CA plate and make it legible? It's either that or someone goes to the car and gets the plate number or calls as a buyer and gets a VIN

quote Originally posted by CenTexIndy: Looks like it to me...but it could also be a shadow.

Looking at the width of the right stand and its shadow, and comparing to the left, the left is much wider and there's nothing there to cast a shadow in that area. It interrupts the shadow line of the wing, cast onto the decklid. It looks like a square 3rd brake light. I also noticed that the grills are red on both cars. Even if the windshield vin tags have been changed, the body panels should have the original vin numbers on them.

Don't have the VIN yet, due to DMV changing thier privacy policy, a VIN number is no longer
available with the "smog check" portion of thier website. But what I do have is 2 smog certificates...

INSTA TUNE / SANTA MONICA 6/2/2008 11:42AM PASS - - - - VP746049C
KIMS SMOG TEST ONLY / LOS ANGELES 11/28/2005 11:34AM PASS - - - - FZ707070C

From here I'm gonna go to my Serive Department and speak to my smog guy and have the
smog certs looked up and grab the VIN


What I am trying to accomplish is getting the above car's history to match up with Steve's car,
from there we will have a case for SMPD

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Recanizin' Flat-Buns Since 2001

Eric Nelson
Internet Sales Manager
Power Ford Valencia
nelsone@autonation.com

Not looking good based on that information. Steve's car has never been smogged in CA. That's why it still has KY plates on it. That info says that this car passed CA smog in 2005.

The above smog info is based upon steve's KY plate of C9 009 - I have zero information on the craigslist car above to run yet, owner is supposed to call me back with VIN so I can "buy" the car.

That's odd. Why would he smog a car in CA that is registered in KY?

Anyway... As I said, I hope it is Steve's car and he can get it back. Based on this picture I took of the car, Steve's car has Mr Mikes seats... Unless he took them out.

It seems Steve's car was smogged at least twice since 2005 - There is no history prior to 2005 which tells me that this was the time frame that his car entered the state. Did he buy the car from someone here in CA? Original owner? Purchased in KY?

These are the details a KSR would tell me if I had Steve's VIN, not to mention the Craig'slist car's VIN