News: Retired lawyer reunited with E-type stolen 46 years ago

Discovered in shipping container moments before export


Jaguar E-typeNot Schneider’s actual car

IT WAS the year Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, racing driver Jim Clark was killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim ‒ and Ivan Schneider had his Jaguar E-type stolen.

That was in 1968 and yesterday, 46 years later, the retired lawyer had a phone call from police in California telling him it had been found in a shipping container with four other cars, all of them just hours away from being exported.

Schneider, 82, was living on New York’s Upper East Side when his E-type disappeared from its space across the road from his flat in 1968. He despaired of ever being reunited with it.

Missing E-type Jaguar

He should have had more faith in the law he upheld. The police officer who contacted him yesterday told him that the car had been found on a ship passing through Long Beach on its way to Holland.

A shocked but ecstatic Schneider said: “He asked me whether I had ever owned a Jaguar E-type. I thought he was kidding.”

The car, which is in need of major restoration, has been valued at $24,000 (£14,600). Schneider thinks he paid $15,000 (£9,000) for it. It’s likely to be worth much more once it is restored.

 


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