Stolen car returned to owner after 22 years

A dogged police investigator has helped Derick Goosen, a South African businessman, recover his car 22 years after it was stolen.

Goosen got a surprising call from warrant officer Kwakwa Ntokola two weeks ago about a grey 1988 Toyota Corolla, the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld reported.

Goosen had reported the car stolen back in 1993 but it turned up only last year when police seized a vehicle at a roadblock in the northern province of Limpopo after noticing that its engine number had been scratched off.

Ntokola, “a true policeman”, then managed to reconstruct the number and eventually traced the owner to Pretoria, Ronel Otto, a police colonel, told Reuters.

“I’m going to wash it and drive around in it,” Goosen told the Afrikaans. “Everything inside is still in perfect order. I can’t believe it.”