Local Fire Chief's Classic Car Stripped Of Its Doors, Interior
SMITHTON (KDKA) -- Thieves targeted a local fire chief's classic car, but they didn't take the whole thing.
The mighty rumble of a '67 Firebird 350 with a four-barrel. Joel Ribniscky's car has everything… well, almost.
"I guess at some point some folks took the car here and stole the doors out of it, and stole the interior," says Ribniscky, who is the chief at the Smithton Volunteer Fire Department.
Thieves apparently wrenched off the Firebird's doors and stole the seats. All as it was sitting out one night under a car port.
"I don't know how many hours they spent here," says Ribniscky. "It would take me several hours to do this, possibly they were professionals. Obviously, they were."
Getting the doors off of the Firebird wasn't easy. Equally as difficult was getting away; the suspect had to go from the car, across the bridge to whatever vehicle they had waiting to take the goods away in.
"It's shock at first, turns into anger," Ribniscky says. "Then, it's, 'My God, I just wanna have my doors back.'"
The thing of it all is Ribniscky was sound asleep a short distance away in his home sleeping.
The classic car community is a close one and people have already reached out to help out.
And while Ribniscky appreciates it, he knows, "no matter what kinda doors I get, they're not gonna be the same as an original car."
Sure it's only a car, but for Ribniscky the '67 Firebird is more than an automobile, it's a time machine.
"When I was 16, I had a '67 Firebird. Since then , I've always wanted another one," he says.
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