A FEVERISH social media campaign has helped recover a distinctive customised Holden that was stolen from a central Dandenong car park.
Owner Brett Baynham of Cranbourne North said the 1961 EK Holden was spotted in Windsor on Thursday, two days after vanishing from the Thomas Street multi-deck.
A man recognised the vehicle from an Instragram post, one of many placed on social media by Mr Baynham’s extensive network of car enthusiast friends after the car’s theft.
The post was linked to a Facebook page that had received 154,000 views, Mr Baynham said.
“It got to the stage, probably, that the car got too hot to handle.”
The beloved sedan with a “candy apple red” roof was a one-of-a-kind.
It had been found with different number plates and covered with a sheet in a Windsor car park.
By that evening, the car was put on a trailer and secured in Mr Baynham’s garage.
“It’s been thrashed around a bit. There’s a bit of a scratch, some tools missing but nothing that can’t be fixed or replaced.”
Mr Baynham said a lot of car enthusiasts knew of the car, which has featured in many car shows since he bought it 12 years ago.
Many of them have spread word and pictures of the car on Twitter and Facebook since its theft. Celebrities and media have re-tweeted the messages, sparking tip-off sightings as far away as Canberra on Wednesday night.
However many of the sightings are conflicting, perhaps confusing a “sort of similar” vehicle that Mr Baynham knows of in Victoria.
He had spent $4500 customising his beloved machine.
The car had been driven to work and parked in the same spot in Dandenong for the past seven years. But now the vehicle will be taken out for rare outings only.
Ironically, Mr Baynham noticed security cameras were being installed in the Thomas Street car park on Friday – three days after the theft.
