video and image: Canton Repository
We all know what it’s like to put a lot of time, effort and cash into a project vehicle, to make it our own and to create something beautiful to our eyes. The challenge is sometimes overbearing but we always persevere to see our goal complete and make the hard work seem worth it. Now imagine you’re a 19-year old kid working part time at a grocery store, fixing up a 13-year old Camaro as time and cash allow.
Sound familiar? It certainly does to us, but what if you’ve taken that old secondhand bucket you’ve picked up for a measly $600, and turned it into the street machine you could be proud of? For 52-year old Canton, Ohio native Ron Reolfi, that’s exactly what happened back in the early 80s with the help of his father. But it was short-lived.
On October 24th 1981 – almost thirty-four years to the day of this writing, Ron drove his car to the Kroger grocery store where he worked at the time, and unknowingly spent his last few moments with the car until it was recovered three and a half decades later.
As he tells the Canton Repository he parked it away from the other cars underneath the light where, in theory, it would safe. He actually sat in the car, ate his lunch and studied while on break, then went back inside to bag groceries. When he came back out 20-minutes later, the car was gone… not to be seen again until Ron’s father, who received an email from a decretive in Delaware was told that the car had finally be recovered during a title switch. The car was in Ron’s father’s name at the time of the vehicle’s disappearance.
In the days since the return, it’s been an emotional roller coaster for Ron and the elder Reolfi but they are happy to report that the Camaro has actually been returned in an even better state than when it had left!
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of AutoCentric Media, the parent company to Timeless Muscle Magazine, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles. When he isn’t tuning, testing, or competing with the magazine’s current crop of project vehicles, he’s busy tinkering and planning the next round modifications for his own cars.
