The Associated Press
11/18/99 10:45 AM Eastern
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) -- City police expect to get at
least the $250,000
asking price when they auction off rare 1971 Plymouth
Barracuda convertible
with a shady past.
The vehicle, coveted by collectors and muscle car
enthusiasts, was in storage
until two weeks ago as police battled for years to seize
the car from a marijuana
grower and dealer who wound up serving jail time.
It's one of only two 'Cudas made that year with a
425-horsepower V-8 engine,
capable of bringing the car from zero to 60 mph in less
than six seconds.
"Anything that's got history is probably worth
something," said Louis Lamb,
owner of the Kompact Kar Korner in Lynnwood, which sells
high-horsepower
cars of the same vintage. "It's like Bonnie and Clyde's
car."
About 2,000 people are expected to show up at Murphy's
auction house in
Kenmore for the auction on Dec. 4, which also includes
such items as
contractors' equipment, heavy trucks, vans and tools.
Even the asking price would bring more than $200,000 for
drug-fighting
programs after fees and costs, more than the city
general gets from property
seized in criminal cases in a year, police Capt. Jerry
Burke said.
Everett police seized several other Plymouths of the
same vintage from the drug
dealer in 1994.
All were impounded and sold, along with other property
the man was accused
of buying with drug proceeds.
Detectives also heard rumors about the convertible, a
rakish rig with a
metallic-blue finish, but the man claimed he had sold
it.
Then detective Fred Helfers saw an ad for the car in a
magazine last year.
Helfers located a storage facility, and after some
surveillance officers obtained
enough information to get a search warrant in which the
car was found and
seized.
Burke said the man bought the convertible from a central
Oregon business
owner in 1993, showing up at the seller's doorstep with
a trailer and a box filled
with $250,000 in drug cash to complete the purchase.
Gene Rivers
99 R/T, CC, DA
ICQ#23787964
www.mopars.net
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