Car Carrier of the Day: A Thief’s Best Laid Plans Are High-Centered
– Posted on February 25, 2021
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CC effect: I was thinking about those Ford narrow-door coupes earlier today. Another example of Ford’s confused marketing. The narrow and wide doors didn’t correlate with business vs club.
Looks like the trailer buckled and ruined the lower cars. Too bad… postwar cars were precious.
The trailer may be bent a bit, but I doubt it “ruined” the cars on the lower level.
I’d love me a brand new black 1946 Ford 2 door sedan.
I guess the thief didn’t figure they had enough time to offload a car before fleeing the scene.
These new 1946’s have quite a resemblance to the 1940s at first glance. No design work done during WWII so it’s really no surprise.
The location doesn’t stand out as the ideal place for a three point turn.
The thief had a tough time transitioning to a new career after ye olden horse-stealing days ended.
When I was training for a CDL, a lot of emphasis was placed on being sure as to avoid any situation where the trailer would get high-centered. Nowadays, 90%+ of situations where you are likely to get high-centered involve railroad crossings. This guy, or Ford Motor Company was lucky this was just a crossing with a dirt road.
I wonder how many times a new car hauler was hijacked in the car desperate years of 1946-1950?
I know that right after WWII, new cars were in very short supply, so they were undoubtedly a hot commodity for thieves – but I’m not really sure how one would go about registering a stolen, brand-new car. Perhaps things were much more lax in 1946.
Since the post-war cars were mostly the same as pre-war cars, maybe they used the running gear and/or other parts to refresh prewar cars, or even transferred the VINs.
Stolen, brand new parts don’t have to be registered. Chop chop!
“There’s A Felony In Your Future!”
I imagine things weren’t much different back then than today. Stolen cars are just taken across a national border. Maybe thieves use shipping containers more today than back then.
Things were much easier to fudge back in the day. Minnesota didn’t start issuing titles until 1968. You just hand wrote a bill of sale and you were done.
Why do I know this. My dad left me his 67 F250, he was the original owner. Searched hi and low for the title, never found it. Pulled the plates and brought the cab card, death certificate and will to the DMV. First person didn’t know what to make of it. Passed me on to someone my own age. AH, its a 67 and I bet your dad is the original owner, we’ll get you a title and a new set of plates.
Hubcaps and trim rings factory-installed for your motoring confidence.
It can happen even with the best intentions. Here’s the presidental limousine stuck on a hump in Dublin.
When I was growing up in Arkansas in the 50s and 60s, Dealers Transport delivered the Ford Company cars from the factory to the dealers.
Aha! The trailer wasn’t headed far (Manhattan KS newspaper, 10 Nov. 1946):
Great find!
When looking up the area around Karleen St. today, it looks like it hasn’t changed much in the last 80 years, despite being a mere 6 mi. from downtown Kansas City. Actually Karleen St. itself seems to be an abandoned right-of-way, and it appears to have been a dead-end street originally. So I suppose the truck thief may have mistakenly driven down the street, and then was unable to get out of there.
Google StreetView Link:
https://goo.gl/maps/MNiJLQRFsRoBqj5j8
Thanks, Eric703–fun to have your help putting the story together!