Jail Too Good For These Car Thieves

Jail is too easy for the thieves who turned Shane Gustafson’s show car into road kill.

Way too easy.

If the cops ever catch these punks, well, here’s my vote for public horse whipping.

Gustafson, 19, spent three years turning the $100 ‘79 Monte Carlo his dad gave him for his 16th birthday into a gleaming blue hot rod worth $25,000.

The car was hot-wired and taken from Spokane’s South Hill during the wee hours Wednesday. The next night, officers found what was left of it burning and trashed at Ninth and Fiske.

The stunning automobile had been stripped of its valuable wheels and stereo system. It was spray-painted with curse words, taunts to the police and gang signs before being set ablaze.

“Low rider of the year,” was sprayed on a front quarter panel. “Thanks you,” was written on another section.

Gustafson only carried liability insurance. He gets nothing for the loss.

“Every hour I wasn’t asleep or in school or working I spent on that car,” says Gustafson, who joined the U.S. Marines after graduating from Ferris High School last year.

“All the money I saved went into it. It gives me butterflies in my stomach to think about it.”

Those who know Gustafson are heartbroken for him, and no more so than Don Kendrick.

Kendrick owns Accent Body Shop, 3901 E. Wellesley. He was teaching collision repair at the Skills Center several years ago when Gustafson showed up with a desire to learn the trade.

“He was very raw and untrained,” says Kendrick, who has a soft spot for kids. “But I knew he had talent. He’s a super young man.”

Over time, Gustafson’s Monte Carlo took shape.

As any motorhead knows, turning a heap into a show car is a time-consuming and expensive proposition. Gustafson threw himself into the challenge.

The car’s body had to be sanded and primed. The blue paint went on, covered by 18 coats of lacquer. Gustafson painted the undercarriage white. He did the interior and put in a $3,000 stereo system. He replaced the stock 6-cylinder engine with a 305 V-8.

And on and on …

“I took everything apart that could be taken apart,” he says. “I cleaned it, painted it and then I put it back together.”

There were artistic touches, too: roses in the door jams. Etched door handles and designs Gustafson drew into the side windows.

Gustafson didn’t pay others to work on his car. He did it the old-fashioned way, first learning from experts and then doing the work himself.

Tinting the windows was the last of it. The project was completed two weeks before the theft.

The Monte Carlo was locked and parked at the corner of 36th and Rebecca when it happened.

Gustafson was sleeping over at a buddy’s house. The sudden powerful rumble of his car’s engine woke him up.

He ran outside in his skivvies in time to see his prized possession tearing east on 36th. The marks left by the smoking tires can still be seen on the pavement.

While “any car stolen is too many,” says Spokane Police Sgt. Martin Anderson, what happened to Gustafson’s is uncommonly rotten. So far, there are no suspects. “We don’t have much of anything.”

But I’ll bet the morons who did this have been bragging.

Anyone with information and a conscience should call Crime Check at 456-2233. Leave a message for Anderson.

It would be great to see some arrests made before June 15, when Gustafson leaves for Japan. The Marine will serve as a diesel mechanic.

“It’s weird because I don’t have any enemies,” says Gustafson, shaking his head. “I can’t believe the lengths they went to vandalize it.”