ST.PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – Jason Scheidelman just transferred to Florida from New York in October and paid to have his prized car shipped down. Two weeks later, it was stolen from his front yard.
“Unfortunately they destroyed it,” said Scheidelman.
The car was a classic, 1986 Chevy I-Rock Z-28 with T-tops.
“I owned the vehicle for 17 years, never had any intention of ever letting it go, actually I had planned on handing it down to my son when he was old enough,” said Scheidelman.
Seven months later, police found the car in a backyard. It had been chopped up, valuable parts taken off, and was resold to an unsuspecting buyer.
“They took out the windshield, they took out the dash, they took out the steering column, ripped out the stereo, the speakers. They removed the driver side door and replaced it with another door for some reason, I don’t know why, they painted it a completely different color. When they repainted the vehicle, they sold it to an unsuspecting young adult for $3,500, so now that person’s out money,” said Scheidelman.
Scheidelman says he’s angry because the insurance would only cover half of the value of his car and because of the damage, he was not able to get the car back.
“I went through several stages of emotion at the time, anger, upset, the anger was through the roof,” said Scheidelman.
St. Petersburg police arrested two men and believe they are responsible for at least 50 car thefts over a ten-month period.
Police arrested Jason Lee Canady and James Nethery and charged them with multiple counts of vehicle theft and burglary.
“What they were doing was targeting classic cars, mostly from the 80’s and 90’s,” said Acting Lieutenant Ricardo Lopez with the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Police tell 8 On Your Side the thieves targeted the car owners simply because the parts were worth money.
