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A classic car owner in the U.K. was heartbroken this week when crooks stole and senselessly burned his sixty-year-old Austin A35.
The little blue coupe was the first car Owen Lkuciejewski-Taylor had ever owned, and he’d spent the past eight years restoring it to top condition.
“It’s still hard to believe, just like that and something so special to you is just gone, made all the worse by the fact that it was stolen and vandalized so thoughtlessly,” he told SWNS.
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The assistant teacher had nicknamed the car “Bessie” and said that it was a local celebrity of sorts because it was so unusual.
Upon discovering it was missing, Lkuciejewski-Taylor posted about it online and said the response and support he received was immediate and overwhelming.
He then started searching for it and about three hours later found it sitting in a field completely charred.
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The thieves were later spotted in CCTV footage trying to break into several cars in the Leeds neighborhood before they had success with the Austin.
Police have not yet identified any suspects, but the investigation is ongoing.