Mystery Of The Buried Ferrari

Greg Sharp, who investigated the story back in the 1980, found out the original owner, paid $22,500 for the Ferrari Dino as a birthday present for his wife. Then, to celebrate their Dec. 7 wedding anniversary, Cruz and his wife drove out to enjoy a nice evening at the Brown Derby restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard. Unfortunately, upon leaving the restaurant, the couple discovered the car had been stolen. Apparently, the thieves went to great lengths to conceal and preserve the Ferrari. The Dino was mummified with plastic sheets as well as a number of towels here and there to prevent insects from crawling into the intakes. No matter four years of underground neglect would easily destroy any car so it's easy to say that the buried Ferrari Dino story ended here. When insurance investigator Tom Underwood came to appraise the damages, he saw all 21 layers of the Dino's paint eaten through as rust holes completely destroyed the car. What's more, since the thieves failed to roll the windows up all the way, even the leather interior was in a terrible state. It's easy to say that the Ferrari Dino story ended here... except it didn't. From 1976 through 1978, California had suffered a devastating drought, the drought that had cleared swimming pools across the state to later become the first known skate parks for the pioneering Santa Monica Z-Boys skateboarders. Given the dry and arid climate, the Dino was actually in much better shape than people gave it credit for. In fact, it was even salvageable. Many people have expressed interest in purchasing the buried Ferrari but many offers were tentative and most backed out of the deal after realizing what they were getting into. Finally, the story ends with a young mechanic that had purchased the Dino himself to complete a staggering restoration. What's more, the plates that are registered for the Dino read "DUGUP." Brad Howard had it ever since it came out of the ground.