Stolen Ferrari Recovered After 28 Years

[Puddenchucker]

A stolen Ferrari F512M, that was owned by Gerhard Berger, has been recovered after 28 years:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68466...

The report doesn't make much sense:

"Officers said it worked with Ferrari and international car dealerships in a "painstaking" investigation."

"The stolen Ferrari - close to the value of £350,000 - was missing for more than 28 years before we managed to track it down in just four days."

Was it a 'painstaking' investigation or was it ...'just four days.' ?

Surely this must have surfaced somewhere in the last 28 years, e.g. visited a Ferrari dealer, especially if it was in Japan?
Or did the person buying it know it was stolen?

Edited by Puddenchucker on Monday 4th March 13:01

[Wicker Man]

I’d be interested to learn more details of this. It must have passed through several hands. Some now with burnt fingers?

It reminds me of a TVR I nearly bought a few years ago from a main dealer. It turned out to be a ringer! And it was luck rather than judgement that saved me a ton of hassle. Being from a ‘reputable’ source, I let my guard down, and didn’t even notice that the VIN number didn’t match the model!
(TVR did eventually do a proper job of reinstating it’s true identity, but that’s not something we want when splashing out our hard earned expendables.)

[Robertb]

A bit more detail from Top Gear and the Guardian… seems Ferrari themselves raised the alarm after checks by a US buyer.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/retro/gerhard-ber...

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/04/fe...

Edited by Robertb on Monday 4th March 20:46

[Scrump]

Existing thread here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...