Lynda Alsip of Hollister sits inside her 1967 Ford Mustang at California Towing in Salinas on Monday. The vehicle, her first car, was stolen from her 28 years ago and was recently recovered by the California Highway Patrol. David Royal - Monterey Herald 
 
 Salinas >> Before Monday, the last time Lynda Alsip saw her forest-green 1967 Ford Mustang was 28 years ago. 
 
 It was her first car. They even shared the same birthday, said Alsip, who was born in 1967. She bought the car for $800 at the age of 17, with a little help from her dad who has since passed away. 
 
 But about a year after she bought the car, it was stolen from outside her apartment complex in Salinas. Before she had the chance to install her personalized license plates — “LYNDA 67” — it was gone. 
 
 “I never thought I would see it again,” she said standing in a Salinas tow yard next to her car, which was recovered in September by the California Highway Patrol. “It’s like winning the lottery. It happens to very few people and for it to happen to me, it’s just an amazing feeling.” 
 
 The car was located at the Salinas’ Department of Motor Vehicles. A man was trying to register the Mustang to his name after having it for about 23 years and doing some work to it. 
 
 “It had been out of the system for so long that it came back with no file. All of the files for the vehicle had been purged,” CHP officer Jaime Rios said. “The officer did some digging and found out the car was stolen in 1986 from Salinas.” 
 
 Officer Chris Menchen, who did the investigation and recovered the vehicle, said the man said he bought it from a storage and had just come around to registering the vehicle. Officials are still investigating whether or not he knew it was stolen. 
 
 Alsip was apprehensive when Menchin first contacted her. 
 
 “At first I didn’t think it was going to be a happy call. None of my kids were home, and both are at a driving age. But then he asked me if I had ever had my car stolen and I immediately thought: ‘Oh my god! You found my green 1967 Mustang!,’” Alsip said. 
 
 On Monday morning, Alsip reunited with her car. She said sitting in the car “brought back a lot of emotions,” especially now that her father is no longer living. 
 
 “It’s very bittersweet, it’s an amazing feeling to get this car back. It’s an amazing blessing. I couldn’t ask for a better Christmas present. It’s unreal,” she said. 
 
 Alsip said her father taught her how to change the oil, adding that if it weren’t for him, she may have never been able to afford the car. 
 
 If still around, Alsip said, her father would tell her “Only you, kid,” about getting the car back so many years later. 
 
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 Now, she says she’s “going to put it in the garage so no one can steal it and then get it back to road-worthy condition.” 
 
 “This will always be in my possession from here on out,” she said. 
 
 But before driving back home, Alsip added a final touch — she was finally able to install her personalized license plates. 
 
 Ana Ceballos can be reached at 726-4377. ||||| A car stolen 28 years ago was returned to its original owner Monday morning. Brynne Whittaker reports. (Published Monday, Dec. 22, 2014) 
 
 A car stolen 28 years ago was returned to its original owner Monday morning. 
 
 Salinas native Lynda Alsip was only 17 when she bought her first car, a 1967 Ford Mustang, with money she earned at a summer job in 1986. But, soon after she bought it for $800, someone stole the car from her home. 
 
 Earlier this month, after nearly three decades of searching, a California Highway Patrol VIN inspection officer, Christoper Menchen, found Alsip’s car. 
 
 “I never thought I would see it again, it doesn't happen,” Alsip said. “It's like winning the lottery, it happens to some people, but very few and far between, and for it to happen to me, it's just an amazing feeling.” 
 
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 CHP officers found the car in a garage in Salinas, where it had apparently been the whole time. 
 
 According to CHP Capt. Bill Perlstein, these kinds of reunions are rare. 
 
 “But it does happen,” Capt. Perlstein said. “It is sort of a Christmas miracle, and we are really happy to give her her car back.” 
 
 In 1986 Alsip ordered custom license plates that read "LYNDA67," for the year she was born. Her fancy plates arrived after her car was stolen, but she always kept them. So on Monday, she put the plates on the Mustang for the first time. 
 
 Alsip was overcome with bittersweet emotions as she touched her old Mustan, remembering the many mechanic lessons she received from her late father. 
 
 “He taught me how to change the oil in vehicles on this car,” she said. “He’s no longer with us, so it’s very bittersweet. It's an amazing feeing to have this car back. It's an amazing blessing. I couldn't ask for a better Christmas present.”
– Lynda Alsip got an unexpected Christmas present this year: the 1967 Ford Mustang she had stolen from her 28 years ago. Alsip had last seen her first car, purchased for $800 in 1985, at her apartment complex in Salinas, Calif., before it vanished in 1986 while she was out with friends, the Salinas Californian reports. It turns out that it didn't go far. A man who says he purchased it from storage in 1991 kept it in his garage in Salinas and did some work on it before attempting to register it with the DMV. The California Highway Patrol soon traced it to Alsip's mother. When an officer called asking Alsip if her car had been stolen, "I said, 'Oh my God, you found my green '67 Mustang!'" Alsip was reunited with the car on Monday after officers decked it out with a bright red bow. "It is sort of a Christmas miracle, and we are really happy to give her her car back," an officer tells NBC Bay Area. Alsip says her husband and son will work on getting the Mustang running again, but "it's an amazing blessing," she says. "I couldn't ask for a better Christmas present." She's already made one small adjustment: She's added the personalized plates she bought years ago—reading "LYNDA67" for the year she was born—which arrived after the car disappeared. Officials are investigating whether the man who had it all these years knew it was stolen, adds the Santa Cruz Sentinel.