Finders Keeps: Mita Migration Turns Heads

A man who took a 1997 Mazda Miata for a test drive on March 24 apparently abandoned it in Springdale.

After that, the whereabouts of the little green $7,000 convertible became somewhat of a shell-game mystery.

The car, which was reported stolen from Tabriz Auto in Fayetteville, turned up in front of Springdale Acoustics Inc., which does audio/visual work for everybody from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville to University Baptist Church in Fayetteville.

Darren Novotny, vice president of Springdale Acoustics, called Springdale police, who told him the car had not been reported as stolen, according to an April 20 police report. But apparently, the VIN number had been entered incorrectly.

The keys were left in the car, so Novotny drove it to a storage unit at Springdale Acoustics.

Figuring it was abandoned, Novotny called the revenue office to “see about filing for a lost title for himself,” the police report stated.

When police realized the car was stolen, they contacted the owner, Ali Shanehbandi, who immediately went to Springdale to pick it up.