Salinas native Lynda Alsip was only 17 when she bought her first car, a 1967 Ford Mustang, with money she earned at a summer job in 1986. Earlier this month, after nearly three decades of searching, a California Highway Patrol VIN inspection officer, Christoper Menchen, found Alsip’s car. David Royal - Monterey Herald 
 
 Salinas >> Before Monday, the last time Lynda Alsip saw her forest-green 1967 Ford Mustang was 28 years ago. Her fancy plates arrived after her car was stolen, but she always kept them. She bought the car for $800 at the age of 17, with a little help from her dad who has since passed away. “I never thought I would see it again,” she said standing in a Salinas tow yard next to her car, which was recovered in September by the California Highway Patrol. “It's like winning the lottery, it happens to some people, but very few and far between, and for it to happen to me, it's just an amazing feeling.” 
 
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 CHP officers found the car in a garage in Salinas, where it had apparently been the whole time. (Published Monday, Dec. 22, 2014) 
 
 A car stolen 28 years ago was returned to its original owner Monday morning. “It’s very bittersweet, it’s an amazing feeling to get this car back. It's an amazing feeing to have this car back. I couldn't ask for a better Christmas present.” Alsip said her father taught her how to change the oil, adding that if it weren’t for him, she may have never been able to afford the car.
– Lynda Alsip got an unexpected Christmas present this year: the 1967 Ford Mustang she had stolen from her 28 years ago. Alsip had last seen her first car, purchased for $800 in 1985, at her apartment complex in Salinas, Calif., before it vanished in 1986 while she was out with friends, the Salinas Californian reports. It turns out that it didn't go far. A man who says he purchased it from storage in 1991 kept it in his garage in Salinas and did some work on it before attempting to register it with the DMV. The California Highway Patrol soon traced it to Alsip's mother. When an officer called asking Alsip if her car had been stolen, "I said, 'Oh my God, you found my green '67 Mustang!'" Alsip was reunited with the car on Monday after officers decked it out with a bright red bow. "It is sort of a Christmas miracle, and we are really happy to give her her car back," an officer tells NBC Bay Area. Alsip says her husband and son will work on getting the Mustang running again, but "it's an amazing blessing," she says. "I couldn't ask for a better Christmas present." She's already made one small adjustment: She's added the personalized plates she bought years ago—reading "LYNDA67" for the year she was born—which arrived after the car disappeared. Officials are investigating whether the man who had it all these years knew it was stolen, adds the Santa Cruz Sentinel.