has this ever actually happened?

I was sitting in a restaurant with my friend when a maverick fan, came over to talk about my car. he told me he had one in the 80s with a 302. the car was "scary powerful!" whatever. he then told me that he walked out one day and turned the ignition, and ..... nothing. he opened the hood and ...... OVER NIGHT, SOMEONE HAD STOLEN THE ENGINE!!!!!!!!
I am very skeptical of this story but it made lunch interesting so who am I to squash this guy, who cares anyway.

my question is, has anyone ever had an engine stolen OUT of there car? as in unbolted, removed and gone? has it ever happened? :16suspect

 

I think all the swearing would wake me up...

 

and asking if they could borrow your engine lift.

 

I don't think it could happen without a LOT of noise.

 

Someone stole the battery out of my very first Maverick. I parked it outside at my father-inlaws shop over night, went out the next day to start it, and nothing...

 

I knew a girl once who had the rad stolen out of her car overnight in her apartment parking lot. Got to figure that would be messy and loud in the dark. Needless to say the car overheated quickly when she started it the next day...

 

I have seen this engine stolen deal for real. 2002 Christmas Metro Mexico City. I was visiting my aunt for the holidays and her neighbor had the her VW Beetle parked outside in the street to make room in the garage to acommodate for the visitors and only took one night for some daring thief to jack up the bug, remove the engine and get away without the whole incident being witnessed by anybody that would latter state it to the police. No BS! but then again, only in Mexico..........

 

I had my rad, AC compressor and Carb stolen overnight.

Got a guard dog and nothing has been stolen again

 

Buddy of mine had a VW sand rail that somebody stole the engine off of outta his yard. 4 bolts, 2 wires, and the throttle cable, yanked it off and gone! He was at work when it happened, never did find out who did it.

 

It happened on CHiPs.......

 

My aunt's neighbors car was an air cooled beetle, so I guess It is fairly simple to do on an air-cooled VW.

 

had my '56 Panhead Harley knock off on me back in the '70s. walked back to a gas station about two blocks back to use the phone to call a friend to come pick it up. set there about 30 mins. watching it and when we got back to the bike the...carb and coil... was gone...and I was watching it...

 

And that is why my wifes Honda and my Dodge Truck sit outside while the two Mavericks reside in the garage!

 

An engine was stolen by someone I knew, in the late 50's, from a car impounded behind the police station.

 

Friend of mine had just had a blown big block installed in his 69 Chevelle. It was the first supercharged motor among our young group of car nuts, and by far the most radical. It was parked at the shop that built it, so they could do some final tuning after it was installed.

That was on a Friday. We all got up bright and early Monday morning and headed down to the shop, only to find the shop's owner and a couple of cop cars there already.

Saturday, about 3 a.m., someone had backed up a truck to the shop's locked gate, used bolt cutters on the padlock and chain, backed the truck right up to the Chevelle, unbolted the motor & trans (Muncie M-22 Rockcrusher), wiring and exhaust in about 45 minutes and used a cherry picker attached to the truck bed to lift it out and drive off with the motor and tranny.

Old couple that lived across the street saw the whole thing.....but didn't report it because they thought it was probably the shop owner or the kids that hung out at the shop.....when the cops asked if the fact it happened at 3 in the morning didn't make them suspicious, they replied "They're all a bunch of crazy hot-rodders, who knows when or why they do stuff"

Three weeks later, we got a tip that the engine was in a drag car in a town about 50 miles from ours. We heard it would probably be at a nearby drag strip the next weekend. We all went to the races with engine ID documentation, receipts, and the local cops. We found the car/engine in the pits

Turned out, the guy who had it bought it off the thieves, and thought it was a legit deal. Cops told him he could face Receiving stolen property charges, or give the engine back. He pulled it right there in the pits and loaded it in our truck. We actually felt bad he's the one that got screwed, but he told us not to worry, he knew where the guys that sold it to him hung out, and he assured us he was going to be more than compensated for his losses by the time he was through with them.

Bonus: The engine was already dyno-tuned and dialed-in. Ran awesome once we got it back in the Chevelle