A man and his car--reunited after 36 years

NEW YORK -- Alan Poster had been going through a rough time that winter. A 26-year-old guitar salesman, he had just divorced and moved from Queens to a studio in lower Manhattan. He bought himself a flashy treat that he could barely afford but could not resist: a blue Corvette.

Poster had owned the car for only two or three months when it was stolen from a parking garage. It was Jan. 22, 1969.

Years passed, and there were other cars, but he never forgot that '68 Corvette. "Probably the only car I've ever really loved," Poster, now 63, said last week. "That car and my new life started together."

The new life took him to California.

Turns out, the car followed.

Almost 37 years after the Corvette was stolen, Poster got a call last month that it had been recovered--days before it was supposed to be shipped to a buyer in Sweden. It was flagged during a Customs Service check of the vehicle identification number, sending two New York City detectives on a long-shot search through thousands of crime reports to connect the car to its first owner.

"We can call this a miracle," Poster said. "I stand in the shower going, `Why me?' Has anything like this ever happened to you?"

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