Oklahoma man tracks down car sold by father decades earlier

June 23 (UPI) -- An Oklahoma man paid tribute to his late father by tracking down and buying his Dodge Challenger more than 30 years after the older man's death.

Bobbie Bohnsak of Gage said he was only 8 years old when his father, Bob Bohnsak Sr., died in 1988, but he inherited his namesake's love of cars -- including a fondness for the 1974 Dodge Challenger.

Bohnsak said his father purchased the car brand new from an Illinois dealership shortly after he returned from serving in Vietnam, but sold it a few years after moving to Oklahoma to help support his family.

The older Bohnsak died in an accident in 1988, but Bobbie Bohnsak said he remembered his father's Challenger and decided to try to track it down.

Bohnsak said he was able to find the vehicle identification number from an old bill of sale and did an online search, which revealed the car was currently for sale in San Diego.

"It was very emotional and stressful," Bohnsak told KFOR-TV of purchasing the car and having it shipped. "I bet I didn't sleep eight hours till it was home and it took a week."

He said the car idles a little rough and has been repainted, but he's overjoyed to have the car back in the family.

"I love it," he said. "I haven't buried the speedometer yet. Of course that goes to 150 mph. I'd probably go to jail."

A California man was reunited with his own long-lost car after a similar period of time. Ian "Skip" Wilson said his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air was in non-working condition when it was stolen in 1983.

Wilson said he was shocked when the California Highway Patrol contacted him to report his car had been found in 2014 in a shipping container bound for Australia. He said the car returned to him with a new 350-horsepower V-8 engine and only 9 miles on the rebuilt odometer.