MTFCA Forum

The widow of the Chandler Club's former president has had her car trailer with her 1927 right-hand drive Chandler Touring stolen. If you see or hear anything please try and help this family!

"Last night our enclosed Haulmark trailer and my 1927 Chandler Touring car was stolen. This happened 5/10/2020 in the Town of Brant (about 1/2 hour south of Buffalo, NY) between the hours of 2 and 7 PM . I am asking anyone who sees this to please keep this in the back of your mind when looking through eBay, Facebook, and Craigslist.

There are only 2 of these cars that we know about currently. You cannot mistake this car. Thank you in advance for anyone who make keep an eye open so that I may get my car back! It holds great sentimental value to us.** Please Share This Post!**

The Car: Dark Green and Black open touring car with a black interior. Right Hand Drive. The rear tailight says "Chandler" in glass below the stoplight.

**The Trailer: ** The trailer is a dark red / maroon Haulmark 24' enclosed, tandem axle trailer. Heavy duty axles and tongue as wells as sway bars and tow hitch. There is an attached winch in the front of the enclosed portion. The photo shown is NOT the trailer but is shorter and same style.

Please call the Brant Police Department at 716-549-4040 with any information."

I wonder if they even knew there was a car inside.....sad. I would think the car would be really hard to sell so it is important that the police list it as stolen. I wish the family luck getting the car and trailer back.

RV : You need to have them list the car with any scrap yard around.
A friend had a 34 Auburn stolen and cops would not list it in stolen car base because Vin would not go into computer. Not enough numbers. Scrap yards have their own stolen car base. That was how friend got Auburn back. Took 3 years, but was found in chop shop.
Trailer was what they were after. Dan

Would not hurt either to post on FaceBook with a reward! The cash in these times of like $1,000.00-$2,000.00 brings rats out of the barn. Just sad, people do not respect another person or property.

Hank

R.V.,

Please check with the family to insure that the investigating police agency has listed the TRAILER as stolen by both the license plate # and the vehicle identification # which requires 2 separate computer entries because it is likely the thief will toss the plates.

I hope it is found and these birds get free room and board in a secure facility.

Wash your hands,
Dom

Around here they steal trailers to turn into meth labs. Most likely just dumped the car. Dan

Enough info to tell you you need a tracker in your trailer, maybe one in the car, and some type of anti-theft device built in to the trailer hitch. Might have saved a lot of anguish.

They do that up here too, Dan. My own enclosed trailer would make an ideal meth lab, but it is covered completely with pretty wild graphics which stand out from a long way away.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Unfortunately I don't have the owner's contact info, just the police department's. Presumably they know all that stuff, but maybe not; all in all this is a pretty low crime area. Once a week, our local paper used to run a "County's 10 Most Wanted" column, with photos, names, last known addresses, personal stats, and what they are wanted for. One of the last of those columns featured a man who was wanted for--I kid you not--"failure to dim headlights." Oh the humanity....

Maybe some readers here can post a link to this on other forums they may participate in. I just posted the link on an antique phonograph forum I'm active in. There are several members of that forum in the Buffalo, NY area.

While attending the MTFCA Albuquerque Tour, a trailer with a speedster inside was stolen. The speedster was recovered but the trailer was not. After talking with the police, they told me that it is very difficult to identify a specific trailer, especially from the air (using a helicopter). His suggestion was to paint the licence plate number on the top of the trailer in LARGE numbers/letters. I have spray painted my trailer's licence plate number on the top of my covered trailers and hope that no one decides to steal my trailer (but if they do, it will be easily spotted by the police using a helicopter). I hope this suggestion helps. BTW, you cannot see the large numbers while standing beside the trailer, so the numbers not detract from the appearance of the trailer!
Russ Furstnow

A lot of good suggestions. I like Russ's idea of putting the license number on the trailer roof. As chief pilot for our sheriff's volunteer aviation unit I can tell you that roof markings would really stand out. We mark the sheriff cars and boats that way so we can tell who's who from the air. Not all departments will have air assets but if your trailer was so marked, it might be worth your while to hire a plane for a couple of hours to scour the local area from the air. The idea of graphics that are easily recognizable is a good idea too.

I sure hope the folks get their car and trailer back....

I think Mr Furstnow's idea is awesome! Probably would lead to a bunch more arrests. Will do for sure!

I like that idea too, good One Russ!

I also like “Country Boy Justice”, shotgun, backhoe, and a shut mouth.

Just Sayin’ what works works,

Hank

Up here it's referred to as the three SSS. You even see bumper stickers. Part of the good old boy's wolf management plan.
Shoot, shovel, shut up.

I placed a note on the Smokstak's antique cars and trucks and a fellows wife placed it on faceplant too in her neighborhood.

Oldav8tor wrote: ↑

Fri May 15, 2020 6:35 pm

...it might be worth your while to hire a plane for a couple of hours to scour the local area from the air. ...

Or perhaps put up notices at local airports used by private aviation. There might be a few pilots who wouldn't mind looking around while they're flying in the area.

Good one Dick - I know our local pilots would be glad to help in such an endeavor. I suspect that would be true almost anywhere. You could also contact the local airport manager who could probably point you to a couple of guys that would love to do it. They'd be even happier if you offered to put some gas in their tanks. Airport contact info is available at https://www.airnav.com/

Or perhaps put up notices at local airports used by private aviation. There might be a few pilots who wouldn't mind looking around while they're flying in the area.

For what it's worth, you could paint anything on the trailer roof as long as it would be plainly identifiable from the air. The bigger the better. If you could manage to get a photo that you could show to folks if the need ever arose, so much the better.

I did an INTERNET search and found an OLD listing of the exact car for sale in 2005 (same color, right hand drive and license plates and the second photo is the same as shown initially). I posted the photos here so more are available for comparison. http://trombinoscar.com/hupmobile/chandler2702.html

As a point of interest, when I park my trailer, I install a wheel locking boot on one wheel. The boot costs around $160 and is a great deterrent to anyone thinking of stealing a trailer. I also use a tongue lock. Finally, full-replacement insurance for my trailer is $65 per year. All of these things are cheap when considering the value of the trailer and what's inside the trailer. I hope this helps. Russ Furstnow

Someone should confirm the accuracy of the photo's for the items stolen. I did another INTERNET search for the trailer and found the PHOTO above for a trailer for sale in Utah. It could also be an old listing of the trailer, never updated. https://www.smartrvguide.com/L52264090

TRDxB2, the trailer pictured is not the owner's trailer. He didn’t have a picture of the trailer and pulled one off the internet for reference.
Refer to this link on the AACA forum where the stolen trailer was first reported.
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/344265-so ... /#comments

Since we are talking about trailer security, when I used to live in NY they would steal anything left unattended. It was not uncommon to see cars, trailers and other wheeled items disappear entirely or wind up sitting on blocks with the wheels gone. I chain the wheels on my trailer together and through the frame on both sides, use a sophisticated lock system on the tongue and have my name in large letters on the roof. I subscribe to the theory that criminals are basically lazy and will pass up stealing something that requires too much effort. So far so good!

BobD wrote: ↑

Sat May 16, 2020 12:27 pm

TRDxB2, the trailer pictured is not the owner's trailer. He didn’t have a picture of the trailer and pulled one off the internet for reference.
Refer to this link on the AACA forum where the stolen trailer was first reported.
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/344265-so ... /#comments

Thanks for pointing out the details about the trailer. I missed that in the description above. The "style" of the trailer came in multiple lengths (16,20,24,28) and was offered from about 2014 - 2020 and colors Red & Maroon as shown. Not sure if the AACA posting of Dark Red / Maroon means Maroon or some uncertainty on which it is. Too many uncertainties to search on.

Removed this

I saw both trailer and car were found. Sounds like good ending!

Another good resource is "Hemmings Motor News" They run a "Stolen Vehicle" section every month, and their magazine cuts across ALL car interests.