As much as I respect the restoration job (which turned out awesome from what I can tell in pictures), it killed me when he set up his own GFM page almost immediately after 'saving' it. Had somebody else set it up for him it may have been different, but it was like he saw the sensation of the van's rescue and capitalized on it. I don't know him personally, but there are a bunch of rumors out there about him not having much of a Vanner attitude and overall kind of being an ass at the Nats. However, it's the internet, so who knows what is actually true....

I have been reading a lot of mixed stories about the whole scenario.... One story said the woman's husband was the prior owner of the van, not her, and that his son was the one that let the dude on the property? Also, it was said that the van was sold off for the drivetrain and then left for dead on the mountain (not sure why the van would be on the property of the owner that supposedly sold it, in that case)? then, i guess there was a live feed of him finding the title in the van, but then he says he never found it? I don't know, yall...too much to follow, I will just watch how it pans out.

My personal opinion is this, there are issues on both sides of this fiasco!

First off: He took the van without permission. That is theft... Years ago I had a car that had been wrecked. I loved that car (67 impala) and held onto it for a few years in hopes to fix it. If somebody had come on my property and taken it, I would have been devastated. Maybe he thought it was truly an abandoned vehicle and that he was in the right, but people called him on it from the very beginning and he deleted their comments... that makes me think he knew he was wrong.

Then: I do feel that its a little strange that the woman waited to take claim of ownership right as it was leaving to head to Cali... It was almost like she had been watching the events unfold and was waiting for the opportunity to strike. I feel like that may have been orchestrated. Maybe it was to try and hype up the event, maybe it was to get the van back now that it is repaired, who knows. It sounds (and looks) like her family probably holds some sentimental attachment to the van, as they lived in it and traveled and such. You never really know somebody's true intentions.


Either way, if he did not have permission from the van owner or property owner and just took it off private land that was owned by the van's last registered owner, that is theft. I am not a lawyer, so i have no idea about what the laws say...and even then, i know Cali laws are jacked up.... sucks to see that he could lose the van after putting the work into it, but it is a lesson to be learned from everybody that you have to try to go about things the legal way.


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]