Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 19:55:44 -0800
Reply-To: Jim Arnott <jrasite@EONI.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Arnott <jrasite@EONI.COM>
Subject: Re: Bus story
In-Reply-To: <e30c845b0701231813u56381d0dx8d376e9d9206af0f@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; delsp=yes; format=flowed
Better than that:
SF Gate
OAKLAND
Couple shift into high gear to find beloved stolen van
- Chip Johnson
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Perhaps it was preordained that Matt Bettman and Karin Tuxen-
Bettman of Oakland would one day own a restored, road-ready VW bus to
carry them to new adventures and sights. Their history is linked by
the vehicle.
And it could have been only a twist of fate to have it stolen at
a Berkeley BART station two weeks ago -- but that's hardly the end of
the story.
The couple, who honeymooned in the van last year, launched a
rescue effort normally reserved for lost people, and did everything
short of displaying their Mango Green VW bus on the side of milk
cartons.
In the end, the hard work paid off. The couple recovered their
van at People's Park Wednesday afternoon when they spotted it with a
man named Guy Michael Williams, 47, sitting inside. He was nabbed by
Berkeley police, who had been nearby and were quickly summoned.
The recovery was a relief for Bettman, who had darn-near rebuilt
the van, and an affirmation for the couple that the Volkswagen van,
an icon of the 1960s hippie generation, still carried good karma inside.
The saga began Jan. 12, when Tuxen-Bettman returned from a class
at UC Berkeley and discovered the van was gone. She immediately
called her husband.
"She thought I was playing a joke on her," he said. "I couldn't
believe that out of all the cars in that lot, someone would take that
one." The couple contacted police, friends and sent an e-mail to a VW-
van Web site where they were members.
Sympathy e-mails and possible sightings started pouring in, more
than 100 of them on the day after it was stolen, Bettman said. But
all the sympathy and goodwill couldn't halt his sense of dread: By
Monday morning, three days after it disappeared, he was sure he'd
lost it forever.
Discouraged but undaunted, the couple followed a tip that the
van had been seen in Berkeley and spent five hours scouring the city
for it. They came home to find yet another tip, and this one was rock-
solid.
"A classmate said he saw the bus and read back the plate
numbers, it was soooo close," said Tuxen-Bettman.
That persuaded her husband to launch a full-court press to find
the van. He took Wednesday off work and called in the troops, his two
best friends, Gavin Archbald and Sina Afshar. The three had toured
the Western United States in Bettman's first VW van after they
graduated from high school in 1993.
"You have to understand, it's not just a car for Matt, it's like
family," Archbald said. "We had to do everything we would do for a
family member if he was lost."
Wednesday morning began in East Oakland. Searches worked back
toward Berkeley from there.
They encountered men on street corners whom Bettman said he
would not have normally approached, but was energized by their
responses, which he and his friends viewed as the positive karma of
the VW bus rubbing off onto others. All had good wishes for its
recovery.
"There is positive energy around these buses, and stealing one
runs counter to that," he explained. "I just see this as good vibe
coming back -- with interest."
From there, the trio rolled back through central Oakland and
into the neighborhood around 51st Street and Martin Luther King Jr.
Way. By late afternoon, they were back at People's Park, where the
van had been sighted two days earlier.
As they walked in the south side entrance, Bettman saw the van
through a clump of trees.
"There was a guy sitting in it, so I turned away and dialed
911," he said. At the same time, Archbald ran into a group of
Berkeley police officers on bicycles. They arrested Williams.
Tuxen-Bettman credits the recovery to great karma, good
communications and the power of the Internet. "I was struck by how
many total strangers, all of them with sentimental feelings about the
vans, were excited to help us."
It's a vehicle with a special aura. The couple never made a stop
during their six-week honeymoon in the van where someone didn't give
them an I-remember-when tale involving a VW bus, she said.
Even their parents, who didn't know each other at the time, were
bound by the VW fates.
"In 1971, my parents bought a 1971 Sierra Gold VW Bus," said
Tuxen-Bettman. "The same year, Matt's parents bought the same bus,
the exact color. Maybe this was meant to be," she said.
Bettman's first vehicle was a VW bus, and he's owned six of them
since.
The first van died his sophomore year at Chico State, his second
rolled off a soft berm on a dirt road and down a hill, flipping five
times on the way down the slope. He drove a third to Mazatlan in
2003. But in all his VW travels, he had never owned one as nice as
the 1971 model he bought for $800 on the Craigslist Web site two
years ago.
"It made a horrendous noise when I started it, it didn't steer
straight and the engine rattled something fierce," he said. "It was a
real joy to drive."
Two years later, it had a factory-new engine, sound-deadening
material inside, lights and curtains, and had become a comfortable
home away from home. Its green color makes it a unique sight on the
street.
And after all his time behind the wheel of VW vans, they're the
logical choice for Bettman.
"I have a long history with these cars and I know how to work on
them," he said.
"Once you know the tricks, they're one of the most reliable cars
around, but if you have to, you can fix it on the side of the road
with duct tape and a screwdriver."
Chip Johnson's column appears in the Chronicle on Tuesdays and
Fridays. E-mail him at chjohnson@sfchronicle.com.
Page B - 1
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/23/
BAGU1NN42M1.DTL
©2007 San Francisco Chronicle
On Jan 23, 2007, at 6:13 PM, Peter T. Owsianowski wrote:
> Anyone have a link to the story?
>
>
>
> --
> Pete
> '79 Westy "Aardvark"
> '87 Westy "Joe's Van"
> '02 Audi A6 Avant
> WWW. Busesbythebeach.com
