Dr. Phil’s stolen car has been recovered after it was stolen from a Burbank repair shop back in August and then found with a number of other vintage cars that had been stolen.
Back in August, Dr. Phil McGraw took his 1957 black Chevy Bel-Air into an auto mechanic for some work, but, as it sat in the shop overnight, someone broke in and stole the car. Dr. Phil’s stolen car was finally recovered on Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles Times reported , found with 13 other stolen vintage cars.
His car was found thanks to the work of the Taskforce for Regional Autotheft Prevention, a subset of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that had been targeting car-theft rings in the area. When they finally found Dr. Phil’s stolen car, they found that its VIN number had been changed so it wouldn’t show up as stolen.
Police said they arrested a number of suspects, though they declined to say exactly where Dr. Phil’s and the other stolen cars were found. Other than some minor damage to its body, the stolen Chevy Bel-Air was in good condition, police noted.
Dr. Phil expressed gratitude for the police who recovered his stolen car, admitting that he was ready to give up on seeing it again.
“Many thought my ’57 Chevy was just a memory, but I had faith in LA’s finest,” Dr. Phil told TMZ . “We don’t thank them enough. I’ll hug a cop every chance I get this month.”
With the Dr. Phil stolen car recovered, the famous talk show host has recovered a significant investment. Burbank police told the Los Angeles Times in August that, with upgrades, the car was worth close to $100,000.