They stripped it. Tore it to pieces.
Delmer Jefferson of Des Moines got his clown car back this week, nearly two months after the miniature, flame-emblazoned tow truck vanished - trailer and all - from a parking lot at the Za-Ga-Zig Shrine in Altoona.
A Shriner clown for 34 years, Jefferson had been confident that someone would find his pride and joy and return it. After all, he reasoned, what would thieves do with a clown car?
They ruined it. Trashed it.
"I didn't recognize it," said Jefferson, after a friend brought him the remains. "The seat is still there, but that's about it."
The friend, Jefferson said, didn't think fast enough when a man in a truck pulled up and asked if he wanted to make a trade for some scrap mater- ial.
But the friend had a hunch he was looking at the former clown car, so he made the trade and then broke the news to Jefferson.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040902/NEWS01/409020380/1001/NEWS
Delmer Jefferson of Des Moines got his clown car back this week, nearly two months after the miniature, flame-emblazoned tow truck vanished - trailer and all - from a parking lot at the Za-Ga-Zig Shrine in Altoona.
A Shriner clown for 34 years, Jefferson had been confident that someone would find his pride and joy and return it. After all, he reasoned, what would thieves do with a clown car?
They ruined it. Trashed it.
"I didn't recognize it," said Jefferson, after a friend brought him the remains. "The seat is still there, but that's about it."
The friend, Jefferson said, didn't think fast enough when a man in a truck pulled up and asked if he wanted to make a trade for some scrap mater- ial.
But the friend had a hunch he was looking at the former clown car, so he made the trade and then broke the news to Jefferson.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040902/NEWS01/409020380/1001/NEWS