Rarely does the victim of a stolen vehicle have the vehicle returned to him, two years later, but that is what occurred in the case of policeman Michael Fuehrer.

Fuehrer is a member of the Shai (Shomron-Yehuda) District police. When he left his Gush Etzion home two years ago, the 46-year-old policeman was somewhat shocked to see his vehicle was gone. Part of his surprise came from the fact his red Subaru was 16-years-old, and he never thought anyone would be interested in stealing it. That is why it was uninsured against theft.

Last Wednesday, 17 Adar 5773, he was manning an impromptu routine vehicular checkpoint near Efrat, also located Gush Etzion. They spotted a Subaru approaching with three Arab males inside, driving suspiciously slow; leading them to believe the driver may have been intoxicated. They pulled over the white vehicle with PA (Palestinian Authority) license plates. They decided to check if possibly the vehicle was stolen. They checked the engine number and license plate. When they opened the hood to look for the engine number to compare it to the vehicle registration Michael realized the underside of the hood was red, not white. He began wondering if the old Subaru could really be his. He realized the windows were the rock-resistant Lexan® used by Jewish area residents, not PA residents. His suspicions grew until he validated that the white vehicle he stopped was the now 18-year-old red Subaru stolen from his home two years earlier.

He ran home and got the keys, but they did not fit the ignition, which was changed. The keys did fit the door locks however. He laughed at the fact that he decided to hold on to the keys for so long after the old vehicle was stolen. Adding to the irony is the fact that he managed without a vehicle for close to two years. He purchased a new vehicle two weeks earlier.

Police experts did the appropriate inspection and confirmed it was his stolen vehicle. The driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and car theft.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)