In this episode of Gangland Wire, host Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective, steps outside traditional Mafia territory and into a shadowy world just as dangerous—and just as fascinating: the international theft of ultra-rare automobiles. Gary is joined by author Stayton Bonner, former senior editor at Rolling Stone, and legendary car-recovery specialist Joe Ford, the real-life figure behind Bonner’s book The Million Dollar Car Detective.
At the center of the story is a breathtaking pre-World War II automobile—the Talbot-Lago Teardrop Coupé—once described as the most beautiful car in the world. Stolen from a Milwaukee industrialist’s garage in 2001, the car vanished into the international underground of elite collectors, forged paperwork, and high-stakes deception. Joe Ford explains how he became the go-to investigator when rare cars worth millions disappear—and why stolen vehicles are far harder to recover than stolen art. What follows is a years-long global hunt involving disgruntled mechanics, fabricated titles, shell corporations, Swiss intermediaries, and a billionaire buyer now locked in civil litigation.
Bonner adds rich historical context, tracing the car’s glamorous past—from European aristocracy to Hollywood royalty—and exposing how loneliness, obsession, and greed often surround these legendary machines. The conversation expands into other notorious cases, including the disappearance of the original James Bond Aston Martin from Goldfinger, and how wealthy collectors sometimes knowingly harbor stolen artifacts.
This episode is a true-crime story without guns or gangs—but filled with deception, betrayal, and the relentless pursuit of justice across borders.
If you love investigative work, high-end crime, and stories that feel like James Bond meets Gone in 60 Seconds, this one’s for you.
🔑 Key Topics Covered
The theft of a $7 million Talbot-Lago Teardrop Coupé
How stolen cars are laundered through forged provenance
Why rare automobiles are harder to recover than fine art
Civil vs. criminal liability in stolen property cases
The global black market for elite collector vehicles
The missing Goldfinger Aston Martin mystery
How billionaires and shell companies complicate recovery
📘 Featured Book
The Million Dollar Car Detective by Stayton Bonner
🎧 About the Guests
Stayton Bonner – Former Rolling Stone senior editor and investigative journalist
Joe Ford – International car-theft investigator specializing in ultra-rare vehicles
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Tanscript
Gary jenkins: [00:00:00] well, hey, all your wire tapper’s. Good to be back here in studio of Gangland Wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence unit detective. And I have a story today. It’s not particularly about the mafia, but it’s about a subject I’m really interested in.
That’s fast cars and rear cars. And, and I’m kind of a gearhead, as you all know, and love my motorcycles. But, uh, this is about some really cool cars and, and I have here. A couple of guys that, uh, particularly one Joe Ford who is a, a guy, a detective that goes out and finds rare stolen cars, which I think is just fascinating.
So I have Staton Bonner, who’s a former senior editor Rolling Stone. He’s written a book called The Million Dollar Detective, and that million dollar detective is Joe Ford. So welcome guys. Gary, thanks for having us. All right. So, uh, I, I guess let’s start off with, with Staton. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
You, you are a writer for Rolling Stone and, and written another book. I, I see. And, uh, so just tell us a little bit about yourself.
Stayton: Uh, yes, [00:01:00] sir. Former senior editor Rolling Stone Magazine wrote a book a few years ago, uh, Altru Stories. About a bare and knuckle boxer working to give his daughter a, a better life in New York City through these underground fights.
This story though, uh, is the most a amazing story I’ve come across, uh, in my years as a journalist. I don’t know if you’re a fan of James Bond gone in 60 seconds. Catch me if you can. Uh, but this story is right in line with that. You know, a lot of my work as a reporter editor is just looking for stories.
So I was scouring regional newspapers. When I came across this small story in a Milwaukee publication and it just immediately grabbed me, it jumped off. Uh, you know, in 2001, a $7 million stolen car was stolen in the middle of the night in Milwaukee from an industrialist private garage.
Three men in overalls cut security lines broke in. Absconded in the middle of the night with this very rare vehicle case closed with cold years later, a [00:02:00] detective Joe Ford gets a call from the French Alps, and a uh, disgruntled mechanic said he knew the whereabouts of this stolen car that authorities have been looking for around the world for years.
That really set off the chase that kicks off this book. It’s about, obviously it’s about a rare car, but it’s interesting because it gets into the veneer just underneath this high society world of people like Ralph Lauren and various heads of of industry. Buying and selling rare cars for many tens of millions of dollars.
There is a criminal enterprise underneath that, as you have with any rare art world dealing in fakes, forgeries stolen goods and all of that. And that’s when Joe Ford, the car detective comes in. You know, I talked with authorities police FBI, you know, there’s not a dedicated unit to recovering stolen cars as they have with stolen artwork.
So when a, when something a 10 million do dollar car gets taken. Uh, he, they said, they told me there’s one guy they [00:03:00] call and, uh, that’s Joe Ford. You don’t have to be a car person to love this book. The Million Dollar Car Detective just is really a good cat and mouse chase story. Um, and I’m, I’m thrilled to be here to talk about it.
Gary jenkins: Great. We all love cat and mouse chase story as I do anyhow. So Joe Ford, uh, tell us about yourself. How did you end up in this position to be the million dollar car theft detective?
Joe Ford: Accidentally. I started out as an architect in New Orleans, then went to law school, didn’t practice law, but I had a classic car dealership in Louisiana and in Florida.
And being involved in the car world, you learn about things. And then it was, uh, years later I ended up recovering a stolen acid martin for a guy and it was successful. And then, uh, got into a contract to recover a stolen $18 million Ferrari race car. And was successful and then heard about this from a French mechanic who is hadn’t been paid by somebody in Switzerland.
So he spills the [00:04:00] beans and, and gives me a clue. And I’ve been on this hunt for a car taken in 2001 and I’ve been litigating for over eight years now against an LLC owned by a billionaire set up just to buy this car outta Switzerland. And. My opinion is it was set up because he knew it was stolen, he knew it had paperwork issues and knew he would have to litigate to clear title.
And I’m now litigating to clear that title, but I intend to retrieve the car. And for me and my partner, I partnered up with the heirs of the original Milwaukee theft of victims. And, uh, we’re in court now against this
Gary jenkins: LLC. So, if I remember my, uh, property law from law school is you can’t, if you don’t have good title to something, you can’t pass it on to somebody else.
Any, any. Passing on is an illegal transaction, and whoever pays money for something with a bad title just by eats it, eats it, is my, if I remember right, [00:05:00] that correct.
Joe Ford: That that’s correct. And it, it goes down the chain. You can buy a stolen car from one guy, he can sell it to another, he can sell it to another.
Nobody acquires title because the thief didn’t have it, and each guy sues the prior guy to try to get his money back and the property gets returned to the victims.
Gary jenkins: That’s,
Joe Ford: that is the, the law of the world.
Gary jenkins: Interesting. I remember my law school, right? It’s been a few years. Yeah. But I remember that. Right.
Uh, so, you know, in this, this world, you know, we know about the jewel thefts. You know, the Marlboro Diamond never appeared back. The Chicago outfit guy stole this Marlboro diamond in, in London and mailed it to somebody. It never did reappear. Many times these paintings don’t ever reappear for years and years.
And we always, there’s always a speculation. There’s these, these, reclusive, super wealthy collectors or, uh, Arabian Saudi Arabian princes or something that will keep these things. Are any of those rumors true? Is that what happens with these cars? I mean, how do you hide a car? Especially one is what [00:06:00] this car that you’re looking for is a Talbot Lego.
Teardrop coop. Really distinctive, looking real. And I’ll have a picture of this up there, guys. Really distinctive looking car. So how, oh yeah, I see it up on your, uh, uh, up over your head there. So h how does this work? I guess a little bit about how this works.
Joe Ford: Lemme
Gary jenkins: just
Joe Ford: go ahead,
Stayton: lemme just give a little context.
So just for the big picture, Gary, you know, uh. Again for your listeners, I’m not sure, you know, rare cars it’s relatively smaller niche market in high-end collectibles, but it’s also, uh, the fastest rising sector. So you have, you know, folks who make a lot of money you know, they wanna diversify their assets.
It could be any number of things including, Picassos, Basquiats, uh, whatever. But what’s a lot more fun, when I interviewed all these people, is buying a super rare car. ’cause unlike something, a piece of art, you hang on the wall, you get to drive this thing.
Gary jenkins: Yeah.
Stayton: So the rare, you know, so the rare car market is really one of the [00:07:00] fastest growing markets.
It, it is really largely due to Ralph Lauren. He was a guy from the Bronx, just a working class kid. He grew up loving cars. So once he made money with Polo, uh, he started buying and collecting these old, Ferrari racers a lot of times that were just beat up, banged up. These things were raced in all sorts of.
Different competitions across Europe, just charred husks. Uh, but he would find them with his team and kind of restore them with the original items that they would find and make it as as true to period correct as possible. And then in the past decade or so as a market, the rare car market.
Has increased in value by more than 300%. It’s bypassed assets like, you know, collectible wines, jewelry, artwork, everything else. So there’s a whole hierarchy of cars within that at the basic level, a rare car. Two things. It’s obviously by definition there’s not many of them. A lot of times these are pre-World War [00:08:00] II vehicles that were custom made in Europe by the, the highest level of artisan, uh, in the world.
And then number two, a lot of times they, they signify a very special. Innovation in technology or design or just something that makes it special? Obviously, Ferrari, if it raced, if it won something in a competition, if it was a car owned by Steve McQueen, right from Bullet. Yeah, something like that. If it’s a very rare special car, that’s where it gets to this next level.
I mean, I’m sure a lot of your readers, our listeners have a. You know, a, a rare muscle car that their dad or uncle left around, they kind of tinker on in the garage or whatever. And that, that is a layer. But this is a whole nother one where these, these become worth tens of millions of dollars. And just like any rare asset if you have a lot of value and it’s hard to find paperwork.
For instance to verify these things, you have to do a lot of, of digging, but it also opens up an opportunity for a lot of fraud and theft. And that’s [00:09:00] really what has happened in the rare car market. And that’s, that’s where they call someone like Joe. Joe, I don’t know if you want to add anything else to that.
Joe Ford: Yeah. It doesn’t happen often because every thief soon learns you can’t sell the stolen item. Yeah. So then the only pathway to try to legitimize a sale is to try to fabricate paperwork. Or create a paper trail to somehow explain how you came to possess this stolen car. And in this instance, the paperwork was all fabricated, including forged notary stamps, forged signatures, a forged paperwork trail as if it, the car went from this guy to that guy.
And it’s just, but what? You just debunk all that and uncover the lies that are trying to paper over a
Gary jenkins: theft. So, uh, your investigation in this started with a disgruntled mechanic over in Europe or in France, getting a hold of you. ’cause your, your name is well known out in that subculture, I would assume, and how to get [00:10:00] a hold of you.
Then you start find out where it is, and then you have to start looking at that paperwork and discrediting all that paperwork in order to establish a, a claim to it. Would that be, tell us about that trail.
Joe Ford: Yeah, well the first thing I do is, uh, it’s a clue that I get out of this French mechanic ’cause I don’t know if he’s telling me the truth or not.
So what I did is I located the original theft victims and said, Hey, by the way, did you ever sell the rights to this car at any time? And the, the theft victim’s there says, hell no. I inherited that thing. We didn’t know where it was, so we just waited. Couldn’t complete probate, so we just waited. So I said I got a proposal.
I’ll enter into a contract with you where I’ll pony up the money and I’ll go find and recover this car. I have a clue. It’s somewhere in Europe. I don’t know who owns it or who’s possessing it. It’s gonna take years. We may never find it. But if you want, and uh, so I did sign a contract with the heirs and then so began the cat and mouse.
Or I should say cat and [00:11:00] rat. You know, mice are, mice are usually innocent. This is a cat and rat situation. Cat rat.
Gary jenkins: That’s a good one. So what was your first step then? Did you fly over to France and meet this mechanic and look him in the eye?
Joe Ford: No, I, I teased out more data from the mechanic. I said, well, what, can you tell me what, what’s, what, do you know?
Why do you suspect this guy took it? Why do you suspect it’s stolen? I get some conflicting clues like he, he wouldn’t commit to where it was. He wouldn’t commit to, uh, photographs of the stolen car, but he did send me a photograph of this other car and it turns out the thief had gone back to the estate.
Once the victim died, he went to the estate to buy some other parts, and in the purchase of these other parts unrelated to the stolen car, he generates, he gets signatures and then begins generating a paper trail as if he’s buying the stolen teardrop. You know, paperwork to look like he’s buying this car.
But in fact, he was buying [00:12:00] an ordinary body of a black sedan. It kind of looks like a frumpy old Ford model T.
Yeah. And um, so with that contact with the estate, this thief then fabricates paperwork. Then waits years and years and ultimately restores the car really nicely to museum caliber restoration.
You could bring it to Pebble Beach Concord in a heartbeat. Wow. And it would win. And so he restores it and then he sells it to this. Innocent purchaser. I don’t think he’s so innocent. And that’s who I’m in court with now. He sells it in Switzerland and this guy imports it and he waits a year before even trying to get a title, which is a very suspicious act.
Yeah. And when he does apply for a title in Illinois, it pops up as stolen in the state of Illinois. Contacts the state police who contact the Wisconsin Police, who then contact us and say, Hey guys, we found your car. It just popped up. And so, uh, you know, I, I call those people and [00:13:00] say, listen, why don’t you just hand it over and go back against this phony seller?
And it’s been a fight ever since. ’cause they won’t do the right thing. They just won’t, they’ll, they’re spending millions on attorneys rather than give up the car and do the right thing.
Stayton: So, Gary, I should, I should add, give you a little bit of context here. First off, I obviously interviewed Joe Ford for the book.
I also interviewed the alleged thief, Chris Gardner. Oh really? Uh, who I should say denied all charges and the charges, criminal charges were dropped against him. So let’s clarify that up top. Let me give you a little bit of context here. ’cause what was particularly interesting here, uh, was Joe Ford and the alleged thiefs, uh, background together.
They both came up in New Orleans. Oh really? Uh, working together in the, uh, rare car import export. Business starting off with gray market imports. These were European cars, uh, that you could buy and import from overseas for cheaper [00:14:00] than you could buy here. Uh, and you were supposed to do some type of modification to make them street legal here.
And that was kind of a booming market before, uh, basically the industry and, and government closed it down. But Joe and, and the alleged thief, Chris. We’re in business together and we’re friends and did work together for years, uh, until they had a massive falling out. Over, uh, various disagreements regarding car disputes and land disputes.
But, basically that was one aspect of this that was compelling to me, uh, was, was Joe and the alleged thief had this his history together. When it comes to the car, the $7 million TBO logo. It was a car that the Rob report once called the most beau beautiful car in the world. One of only two models built with this race car engine. And I think what’s really interesting to me, it is a, as a journalist in reporting this story, uh, was exploring just the [00:15:00] histories of all of these rare cars. They would. Trade hands over the years. Uh, this one was built in, uh, 1938 by FII fci, these Italian immigrants to France.
And it was, you know, uh, made it for basically, we’re not entirely sure but Parisian royalty was probably the best guess. And they would show these things off. You would buy matching outfits, almost like Downton Abbey era to go with the car and you would, go to these grand events.
Uh, and it was really almost like a luxury accessory, if you will for royalty overseas. This car was imported into the United States in 1939 by Luigi Chinetti. A former Italian race car driver who won Lamont three times that year. He sold the teardrop to Tommy Lee, uh, who was the son of, uh, basically a, a wealthy businessman in, uh, Hollywood.
In fact, literally the Hollywood sign was [00:16:00] on his Lee Mountain or his, his former mountain. He owned all the ca Cadillac dealerships throughout California. Got a piece of it. So his son was like this Playboy, who would. State Starlets raced these cars in the, uh, Mojave Desert, um, and lived this really extravagant lifestyle.
He actually, in 1950, had a road accident, left him in chronic pain, and ended up jumping from, uh, a 12 story building, killing himself and leaving behind this world class collection of cars, including the teardrop. It finally found its way, uh, purchased by Roy Leki, a self-made millionaire. And, uh, and the founder of Monarch Plastic Products, uh, this company he ran in his warehouse in, um, in Milwaukee.
And, you know, it was an interesting story of, of Leki. Uh, basically his, his wife died of cancer. His son, a pilot, died in an airplane crash. He, according to all reports, became pre pretty reclusive and withdrawn. And he really [00:17:00] focused on this car. So this garage where he kept it. Became piled up with junk pieces, all sorts of, of different things.
And he, talking with, um, his nephew and, and various people who knew him, including Jay Leno. I interviewed Jay Leno, uh, who went out to look at the car. He became lonely and he started putting out advertisements that he had this rare vehicle in car trade magazines and saying. Purporting, he wanted to sell it.
I, you know, talking to his family, they, they think he just wanted, was lonely and kind of wanted talk to people to meet people. Yeah. Wanted talk to people. ’cause people would come out there. Jay Leno. Oh yeah.
Gary jenkins: Uh, flew
Stayton: out there. He flew out and looked at it’s kind.
Gary jenkins: It’s kind of the Ulti Ultimate Barn. Find the Ultimate Barn find.
Yeah.
Stayton: That’s the ultimate bar find. That’s right. And Jay Leno said, you know, something about it just didn’t feel right. I didn’t do it. But in the course of that, that is, is when you know, the alleged thief came and saw it and his representative and, you know, aft afterwards. That’s what led to the car being stolen.
But it’s this [00:18:00] really interesting backstory, not only of Joe and the alleged thief, Chris Gardner. But also of this car and each, you know, the book details, this, his, this car’s history and other ones as well. That it’s, it was just one, one crazy story after.
Gary jenkins: Really, it’s kind of the ultimate cautionary tale for you guys that have some kind of a cool car out there.
I, I, my ne my, uh, cousin, he had a muscle car stuck out in the barn, out on the farm, but his brother lived on the farm and his brother had all kinds of, drinkers and different people coming out to the farm. You know, drinking and talking to him, and all of a sudden the trailer and the muscle car is gone and has never been found since.
So, not expensive enough for Joe Ford to go after, but still. Mm-hmm. So you gotta be careful who sees what’s what you got in, in that, uh, when you got something like that, it’s crazy. Yeah. Joe, uh, go ahead Joe. You had you started to say something. I was
Joe Ford: just gonna say, just to add on that. The first thing you do when you get a car is [00:19:00] apply for a title immediately.
Yeah. And before you actually purchase a car, it, you can ask the police to do a VIN check. Just run this vin. Has it been reported stolen? ’cause the police maintain a database to protect and prevent against auto theft of stolen property, especially cars. And that’s something that was, this car was listed as stolen in the database.
Yet these, uh, this LLC owned by this billionaire still decided to buy it. It’s just an incredible story and to me it’s a, it’s sort of a, if I had summarized my opinion, it’s a sophisticated laundering of a stolen car by someone with means. Yeah. Because had I not partnered up with the victim, he didn’t have resources or knowledge to battle.
Gary jenkins: Yeah.
Joe Ford: So, you know, this, this guy would’ve steamrolled him.
Gary jenkins: Yeah, so, oh yeah. And you got the resources. I tell you what, uh, as a lawyer, I had a guy come to me and he had a, a dispute with somebody, his landlord. And I says, this landlord got money. He said, yeah. And, and is he a nutcase? Yeah. [00:20:00] If you go after a nutcase with money in the court system, you know, get ready there.
You, you ain’t ever gonna get any satisfaction. They’re gonna keep you tied up for years. It’s not worth it. But, so that’s side.
Joe Ford: Go ahead. I, I can’t make up I don’t think I’m dealing with a nutcase, but it’s just someone I’m sure who believes he was in the right. But if he would look over his own documents, he would see that no.
In fact, maybe you, you were let down. You, you took some shortcuts, you didn’t do your homework. Yeah. And uh, all you need to do is give up the car and then go after the guy who sold you a stolen car. It’s that simple.
Gary jenkins: Yeah. I have to ask, as a lawyer, are you in a American, United States courts, or are you in European courts?
Joe Ford: I’m in, uh, Wisconsin because the, the car was stolen outta Milwaukee, so a Milwaukee state court. That’s where I’m at. Yeah. But the car is in Europe
Gary jenkins: or is it back in the United Oh, it’s back in the United States.
Joe Ford: Okay. It’s sequestered in Ma Massachusetts in a really nice shop in Massachusetts where it’s climate controlled storage.
So. We just, once we finish this [00:21:00] lawsuit, you know, we’ll be awarded the car. Yeah, yeah.
Stayton: Yeah. So, Gary, Gary, just, just for your clarity for your listeners too so once Joe was notified of the stolen car’s existence by this mechanic who had you know, been working with the alleged de. That’s when he began really researching it.
Uh, the purchaser of this vehicle, a very wealthy individual who actually started very interesting story, started his own dental practice built it up, built his own software system to handle his own backend for his multiple dental offices. Lo and behold, that software system then became worth a lot more than pulling people’s teeth.
And he started, uh, a company. That is, is now worth, hundreds of millions of dollars on paper at least. And, um, that’s when he, he began buying and selling rare cars. This individual bought the car, uh, for over $7 million you know, imported it into the United States. And when he tried to register it, uh, that’s when it triggered as being [00:22:00] stolen on a database list.
Okay. That’s right. And that’s when authorities went to seize it. So the car is still in, in litigation and dispute. Uh, the crim, the criminal side of it was charges were dismissed. The alleged thief was arrested overseas, uh, brought over to the United States, held it in, uh, in prison in Wisconsin for years.
And until, uh, finally charges were dropped, and then he went free. And but the actual dispute over ownership of the car continues to this day, and the car is currently being held as Joe said by a restoration shock outside of Boston until all matters are settled. Wow.
Gary jenkins: So this, go ahead.
This super rich guy was arrested over in Europe, brought back in custody and put in a county jail, probably two or three county jails by the time they got him back to Wisconsin and held there. The,
Stayton: so the, the wealthy individual who purchased the vehicle’s, been in the United States the whole time.
He’s just a car collector. Oh, okay. This is the in between the, [00:23:00] the intermediary.
Gary jenkins: Yeah. He, okay, I
Stayton: gotcha. He, well, he, he was the purchaser and so he bought the vehicle, he hired people to go do the vetting overseas in Switzerland. On the vehicle. It was the alleged thief, uh, uh, who was living overseas, and he was the individual who was arrested and brought over and the charges were dropped.
Joe Ford: I gotcha. By the way, the charges were dropped because my partner, who was the key witness died and the west attorney decided that he might not be able to prove his case without this key witness. Mm-hmm. So is this guy
Gary jenkins: kind of guy that goes around and spotting cars like that and stealing, was that kind of his, his occupation, if you will?
Or is this just a happenstance thing?
Joe Ford: Well, uh, it. The FBI located the other two thieves who did this heist for this car, and they said that this guy from Switzerland was also planning to steal some other cars and asking for their help. Those never came to fruition, but apparently there, there was the [00:24:00] game plan that these cars the few that were not already in museums were targets.
Because these cars belong in museums. They’re pieces of automotive history that as well as phenomenal design. This car has a racing chassis. A racing motor. That’s why when Tommy Lee, the man in California, would bring it out to the Mojave Dry Lakes, he would win against the hot rods. And this ball was 1938 and he was racing against 1945 cars.
It’s, you know, it’s that good of a car. Wow. And,
Stayton: and to answer your question, Gary, yes. I, I interviewed one of the, uh, a person who said he was a thief, uh, who stole the car that night, along with, uh, the alleged mastermind behind it. Um, and he, he described to me in great detail how it went down, how they cased the place, uh, went in after, after dark, uh, and then went through this very arduous journey.
To you know, take out what was in pieces, this rare car and put it in the back of a, of a [00:25:00] truck and drive it from Milwaukee back down south to Florida. And you know, at one point he described really the paperwork, uh, and the alleged thief that the person he said was behind it all you know, knowing exactly where to go and take it all.
But that said, there, there were some key pieces of paperwork left behind. Which the alleged thief pointed out. But I did also interview a gentleman in Texas who said he had been defrauded by this same alleged thief years ago. He was a wealthy Texan, uh, who just, you know was really into cars.
And what he alleged was he had bought what he thought was a specific type of car when it arrived at the airport there in Dallas. And he went to go pick it up. It was not the same type of car. It was kind of modified to look like what he thought he had bought. It was actually a car of lesser value, and, and it, he had trouble making it work.
He then pursued this individual for years and he says he eventually found through his legal team the alleged thief in Florida, and basically running [00:26:00] an operation of, of buying, of taking cars and then remaking them to seem they were a, a different car of higher value. So there, there, there are trails of, uh, other allegations, uh, against him.
Gary jenkins: Got another cautionary
Joe Ford: tale
Gary jenkins: there.
Joe Ford: It’s like with fine art, you have to come up through the ranks to know about these vehicles being so special. And then if you go to the dark side, you might try to counterfeit documents or counterfeit a car. You might buy a chassis of a similar car, modify it, put a brand new body on it, and try to sell it as an original.
So it’s just like counterfeiting artwork. And these guys are masters. I mean, this guy who did this was a con artist, this Chris Gardner Con artist. He earned his name artist. He’s a con artist.
Gary jenkins: It’s crazy. Joe, is there other, uh, car cases that are kind of interesting you’d like to tell people about?
Joe Ford: Uh, there are others and they are very interesting, but I can’t go [00:27:00] into it.
No.
Gary jenkins: We talked a little bit. What about the Aston Martin? That was, uh, one of the James Bond cars and Goldfinger that disappeared out of a uh, uh, uh. Airport garage down in Florida somewhere. What, tell me a little bit about that one.
Joe Ford: There’s lots of theories. In fact, one of the fees in this case suspected the mastermind.
Chris Gardner was also involved in that theft. We have no evidence at that time, but it’s, it’s a good working theory to begin. And that car, I think, has been located, I saw some pictures recently by somebody who I, I can’t name, and it was in, in a collection. And just like you said before, there are some wealthy collectors who just don’t care about anything other than having this coveted item in their basement or garage.
So, and let me,
Stayton: let me give you a little context on the car, Gary. So this was a car. From the James Bond film Goldfinger starring Sean Connery, [00:28:00] obviously the very famed Aston Martin from that movie, which really kickstarted all the James Bond Aston Martin cars. So there, there were two vehicles made for that film.
Or, you know, used in that film, one was kind of a, a road car where they would actually film the scenes driving. And then the other was this stuck car, right? Because that was the car that had the machine guns pop up, had, flame throwers, all sorts of stuff on it. You know, when they, when they finished filming, they just got rid of it.
They were like, this thing is worthless. Who cares? Uh, so that car traded hands for years between various collectors ended up. In the hands of, of a wealthy real estate mogul, uh, in the Boca Raton area. And he, he was an interesting guy. I think he had Indiana Jones’ Bull Whip. He had, uh, some items from the Wizard of Oz.
He was just a collector. Yeah. Uh, and he kept this car in a hangar, uh, in his private you know, airport hangar there. And in the middle of the night. Kind of a similar [00:29:00] deal. Thieves broke into the hangar. No one’s exactly sure what happened. Uh, there were various. Theories. There were apparently, skid marks there that, and indicated one theory was it was loaded onto a cargo plane and flew off into the night.
Other people, uh, would, this made news when it was stolen, uh, you know, claim to have seen it all sorts of places. It was in the Keys, it was somewhere in Appalachia. Uh, nobody really knew. But again, uh, it was, it was probably one of the more famous stolen cars of all time now worth. Millions of dollars. I interviewed another individual and there’s a whole subculture.
I interviewed various detectives beyond Joe. A lot of them work for these insurance companies. So basically the police, frankly, probably are, are busy on, on other things. They’re not gonna be the folks who are gonna find this stuff. It’s really the high-end insurance company who’s on the hook for the tens of millions of dollars.
They have an incentive to have their own [00:30:00] investigator. You know, tracking down these cars to try to find ’em. So I talked to an individual working with them, or these insurance companies. He had been looking for this car for years. There was a theory, it was bought by a, a, you know, some wealthy individual in the Middle East, and it was in some warehouse full of all sorts of cars.
But really it was in the course of this investigation when, as Joe points out, I, I did interview a person who said he had stolen the Tableau logo along with the alleged mastermind. He said he recalled this person and the FBI agent said that they had heard this person talking about, uh, the James Bond car.
And so that was a theory. They, it was, he was around the same time, it was similar, uh, circumstances. So, uh, there was a theory which of course the alleged thief, uh, disputed, uh, that, that he had somehow been involved with that. But again maybe Joe has an update. I don’t know.
Joe Ford: No updates. Sorry.
Gary jenkins: He is not talking.
But it’s, it’s covered in, it’s covered in the book. It’s too soon. Okay. Oh, [00:31:00] alright. Cool. Good luck guys. You gotta get this book. It, its, it’s a fascinating look into this. World that we usually don’t, you know, kind of hear about and it doesn’t make a hell of a movie. You know, they’ve got that gone in 60 seconds and they out and steal all these fancy cars.
But the actual tracing of, you know, who the casing of the place, picking the car, casing it, getting it, the paperwork trail that going from one owner to another and, you know, over into Europe and everything. Make a heck of a movie. Maybe you guys will get the screen rights sold on this.
Stayton: What you think.
Yeah. And, and there’s a, you know, and Joe in this alleged thief that had a fallout earlier over another stolen car, a rare, uh, Ferrari. Joe, do you wanna talk about that one briefly?
Joe Ford: Well, yeah. That, that’s this Ferrari race car here. Uh, ultimately was located and sold to Les Wexner for around 18 million.
Involved a, a sale, a illegitimate sale through a high-end auction house. After we [00:32:00] finally settled the case and one of the board of directors of the auction house resigned right after we settled ’cause he had been. Tricked into believing somebody else owned this Ferrari, when in fact, it was myself and my Ohio partner who owned it, and they sold it in London.
So it was international borders and you know, a lot of litigation, litigation in Ohio. That’s where the original theft was, Cincinnati, Ohio, and then exported to Belgium, hidden under a phony VIN number because it was so rare of a car. They just don’t make many of them. And then, uh, finally when the guy was on his deathbed.
He tries to settle up and square away the paperwork. He contacts the Ohio heirs and then he sues them to try to clear up title ’cause he’s on his deathbed and he knows his daughter can’t do anything with the car in, in its current status. So that litigation took another six years to resolve and ended up having.
Squirrely people come out of the [00:33:00] woodwork claiming ownership of the same car. ’cause the car was once raced in South America since there was somebody from South America who said he owned it. And of course the history and the, the track record and provenance proved otherwise. But you, you get all kind of, uh, crazy people come out of the woodwork when there’s high stakes on the table.
Stayton: And this, this was another, another case, Gary, of, of, again a kind of a, a, a wealthy, uh, retired. Actually nuclear scientist, this gentleman in Ohio who had owned the car for years, had worked on the Manhattan Project. He had, then become, uh, disillusioned, uh, with, what he had done there.
Also, similar to what happened to Tab Lago kind of became a recluse. Had these vast junkyards full of mostly just junk cars or, or like pieces of airplane, or he would just tinker. He is a brilliant kind of, a lot of these guys are kind of like almost mad scientist guys who would tinker with these things.
But it [00:34:00] became known that amidst all this pile of junk, there was this very rare old Ferrari again, after Ferrari himself dies. And these cars become more valuable. That’s when people found out about that car. Same deal. Uh, in the middle of the night, someone cut a fence took the car, loaded it on a trailer, uh, that went down to Georgia and eventually made its way, uh, to Europe, uh, via kind of back channels and, and fraudulent paperwork.
So it’s, you know, what’s compelling about this is. Frankly, the logistics, these cars, these cars are amazing pieces of history and art, which it was fun for me to really report on this. And it’s a, it’s a great read to, to learn the history of this car, this Ferrari, raced car that it raced in South America, had raced in all these places.
Absolutely beautiful car. And, you know, and, and then wound up in the hands of these kind of you know, unique eclectic collectors and then [00:35:00] stolen. But it’s not like, you know, you think about those guys who, who robbed the louv. I mean, they’re moving hot jewelry. That’s not easy. Can you imagine moving a hot, you know, giant car?
Like just the logistics and the operations of this. Are really fascinating. So the book really does go into detail not only in the personal stories surrounding this, obviously Joe and the alleged thief and, and kind of, uh, former associates turned enemies. Uh, but also in, in these cars and the actual mechanics of how you move stolen very rare, tens of millions of dollar cars across international borders.
Um, and it’s, it’s just, it’s just an amazing story.
Gary jenkins: It sounds, it really sounds like to me that’s what attracted to me when I got the, uh, email from your publicist. I thought that this is a, it is not mafia, but it is a really interesting story that I wanna know more about myself. Uh, guys, I really appreciate y’all coming on the show as Staton Bonner and Joe Ford, the Million Dollar Detective.
Uh, it’s just been fascinating, guys, and you guys, I’ll have links to that, uh, book, [00:36:00] uh, Amazon link to that book down in the show notes. So you listeners check those show notes. Yeah. Million
Stayton: dollar, million dollar car detective. Thank you Gary. Thanks so, so much for having, I left the car out.
Gary jenkins: Million dollar car detective.
Thanks Gary. Sounds good. Thank. Thank you.
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