CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — She wanted to take her father on one last drive in a classic car that he had handed down to her.
But now, the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS is gone. Natasha Eckles said someone stole it from a car repair shop in Forest Park.
“Yeah, I wanted to give that one ride, or I wanted him to ride in that car. That one ride,” Eckles told Channel 2’s Tom Jones, holding back tears.
Eckles remembers hearing her father arrive home in it even before he got there.
“You could hear my dad coming, like ‘vroom, vroom.’ Like daddy’s coming,” she said.
She was elated when he gave her the car. Eckles said it was the star attraction whenever she took it for a ride.
“Everybody wants that car. I can pull my car out to go anywhere and it’s gonna get attention,” Eckles said.
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It got the wrong kind of attention April 9 around 12:30 that morning.
The car was at TJ’s Automotive on Jonesboro Road when video surveillance showed someone dropped off near the shop. You see a shadowy figure walk over to Eckles’ car. Then the headlights on her prized Chevelle SS come on, and the classic car takes off.
“My heart dropped,” Eckles said after seeing the video.
She couldn’t believe it when the owner called her and told her it was gone.
“Of course it’s gonna be gone. Right. It’s an SS Chevelle. It’s hot,” Eckles said.
She said she specifically requested the owner not leave her car outside.
“You made a promise to me that you didn’t keep. You said you would not put my car outside. And you put it outside,” she said.
Repair shop owner Tim Jones said he put her car outside that night because he had a transmission job he was doing the next morning and he needed the bay it was in.
He admits it was a bad decision.
Eckles just wants her car returned. She had this message for whoever took it.
“Don’t tear it up. Just bring it back. Just please give me my car back,” Eckles said.
Forest Park police are investigating. The shop owner apologized profusely and said he is offering a $5,000 reward for the return of the car.
Eckles says she will match that.
She said that car has so much sentimental value it’s important to get it back.
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