11.
CHATILLON CAR GRAVEYARD
Legend says that a forest near the Belgian village of Chatillon was once home to a massive
collection of rusting cars left behind by American soldiers at the end of World War
II.
According to the story, it would’ve been extremely expensive for the troops to have
their vehicles shipped back to the U.S., so they decided to drive them up a hill and into
the lush forest and park them neatly in rows.
Most of the vehicles have since been removed.
There actually used to be four car graveyards in the area, but very little remains today.
Anything that was worth taking is gone, and the few cars left are heavily rusted.
While the Army story seems to be the most popular explanation, there are certain things
that don’t add up.
For one, it seems surprising that if the vehicles were truly left behind by soldiers, not a
single one of them seemed to regret leaving their vehicle behind and or coming back to
get it.
And many locals are quick to point out that a lot of the cars were from after World War
II, indicating that the site may have just been an ordinary junkyard.
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of cars at the site anymore.
So it’s difficult to learn about the past, leaving more folklore than fact to base our
best guesses off of.
10.
DUBAI’S ABANDONED SUPERCARS
It’s extremely rare in most places throughout the world to come across an abandoned car
that’s worth a lot of money.
But it became an especially common sight in Dubai, after the onset of a global financial
crisis known as the Great Recession in 2008.
Abandoning a luxury vehicle may seem like an irrational way to handle one’s financial
problems.
But at the time, the country’s outdated laws meant that someone could go to prison
for an extremely long time for defaulting on a car loan.
Many people were unable to keep up with their payments in the struggling economy, so they
simply ditched their vehicles.
Those who were able to leave the country did, to avoid being tracked down and getting locked
up behind bars.
Lamborghinis, Porsches, Bentleys, Koenigseggs, BMWs, and other high-end cars began turning
up outside airports and in parking lots and garages throughout Dubai.
Following the onset of the Recession, somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 vehicles were abandoned
every year in the city!
The problem eventually got so overwhelming that the authorities realized that the law
needed to change.
Vehicle owners in Dubai no longer risk going to jail for falling behind on their loan payments.
Since the change went into effect, there’s been a dramatic decrease in the number of
cars being abandoned.
But there’s still an abundance of leftover vehicles from over the years that have accumulated
at scrapyard and impound lots.
Last year, social media influencer Supercar Blondie uploaded footage of hundreds of dust-covered
supercars parked in a scrapyard.
Some appeared damaged, but many had no visible defects.
Under Dubai’s amended laws, a person who abandons their car has six months to pay a
fine and retrieve it from the impound lot.
Unclaimed vehicles are sold at auction.
9.
A DECEPTIVE DESERTION
When a missing woman’s car was found abandoned outside a Stanwood, Washington post office
in 1993, detectives and her family began to fear the worst.
Judith Bello had recently vanished after she was last seen leaving her job in Stanwood,
Washington with a friend.
The 28-year-old mother of two never picked her three-year-old son up from daycare or
returned home.
It was as if she had vanished into thin air.
Investigators classified Bello’s disappearance as a homicide and continued to look for information
about what had happened to her.
Her photo was even included in a deck of cards featuring 52 unsolved homicide cases.
The case was finally solved in 2011 when the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department received
a call from a woman claiming to be Judith Bello.
She said that she was living in southern California, and that she was alive and well.
Detectives confirmed the caller’s identity as Judith.
She had walked away while experiencing domestic issues with her husband, leaving behind her
family, home, and car.
Judith changed her name and started over in California.
By the time she came forward, she had a new family and a whole different life than the
one she had left behind.
It was a much different story than her abandoned vehicle had told 18 years earlier.
8.
LOUISVILLE’S IMPOUND CRISIS
In 2004, a man named Anthony Calhoun arrived home and was shot dead while walking from
his car to the front door of his Louisville, Kentucky home.
Police towed his 1988 Camaro to their impound lot and processed it for evidence.
They found nothing useful, and Anthony’s killer was never caught.
Because the vehicle is considered evidence in an unsolved crime, it’s been kept at
the lot since 2004, even though it’s unlikely that investigators will ever need to reexamine
it, whether or not they catch Calhoun’s killer.
Between situations like this, along with vehicles that have languished at the impound lot for
owners who will probably never come to retrieve them, the city of Louisville is in the throes
of an abandoned car crisis.
The police lot alone contains around 1,250 cars, including many that have been there
for years.
The streets are also filled with left-behind vehicles.
In many cases, car insurance companies are informed of a wrecked vehicle, but they never
come to pick it up because it’s cheaper to just leave it at the lot.
The city is doing everything in its power to resolve the problem.
Earlier this year, anyone who had a car at the lot but didn’t want to pay for the towing
and fees was given a chance to retrieve their vehicle without penalty.
Around 60 cars left the lot that day, and another 70 were auctioned off.
There are plans to hold more auctions in the future, but it won’t get rid of cars fast
enough to keep up with the influx of towed vehicles that pour into the lot on a regular
basis.
But with so much attention being drawn to the issue, the city is finally taking a proactive
approach and trying to figure out a solution.
Do you think if investigators today took another look at cars that have been sitting in evidence
for quite some time, they could crack some unsolved cases?
Let us know in the comments below and hit subscribe while you’re at it!
:)
7.
DODGE DEMON & PLYMOUTH DUSTER
The popular YouTube channel Auto Archaeology documents rare, old, and expensive abandoned
vehicles, also known as “barn finds.”
A recent video reveals a pair of striking purple cars that, at first glance, look like
they could be the same make and model.
A closer look identifies the vehicles as a 1971 Dodge Demon and a 1971 Plymouth Duster
which are similar but not exactly alike.
Both of the award-winning former show cars had been sitting outside a home in Michigan
for over 30 years.
There was some mold on the cars’ interiors, but they were in shockingly remarkable condition
after being neglected for so long.
Like any old car that hasn’t been maintained or driven in years, they’ll undoubtedly
need some repairs and restoration.
The vehicles are slated to be auctioned off soon at a vintage car and truck sale in Sawyer,
Michigan.
They’re being sold separately, but have spent so much time together, it would be great
if someone bought them both.
6.
AN ABANDONED GARAGE FULL OF ABANDONED CARS
Last summer, a group of curious teenagers trespassed into a building in the Brazilian
city of Rio Grande do Sul and discovered a graveyard of dust-covered classic cars.
Dating between 1920 and 1970, the collection included a Ford Model T, Citroën DS, Chevrolet
Corvair, Fiat 124, Renault Dauphine, and more.
There were even more cars on the second floor, including a Chrysler Airflow, a Renault Gordini,
several Ford coupes, and a three-wheeled Goliath pick-up truck.
The teens recorded footage of their discovery and sent it to their friends.
Someone contacted the police, who tracked down the kids’ parents and also reached
out to the collection’s owners.
Nobody knew about the cars because they belonged to a private owner, who enjoyed them with
his friends.
He died in the early 2000s and his heirs couldn’t agree on what to do with the cars, so they
simply sat, collecting dust, until last year.
The story gained widespread publicity, prompting the owners to start moving the vehicles elsewhere.
By the time news of the discovery hit the press, they had already put a Fiat 124 up
for sale with an asking price of $12,372, sparking hopes that more of the cars would
soon be listed.
5.
1953 PONTIAC CHIEFTAIN
An ambitious classic car enthusiast who runs the Budget Buildz YouTube channel recently
documented his experience working with a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain in Fletcher, North Carolina
that had been off the road since 1971.
The host, Michael Wagner, filmed his attempt to get the rusting car running for the first
time over 50 years.
It’s unclear why the car was abandoned.
Documents obtained by the channel show that the owner had bought some engine parts in
the early 1970s.
But for some reason, he never got around to fixing it, and it was left to rot for over
a half-century.
The Chieftain was pretty weathered after spending such a long time outside, but Wagner said
that it had fairly low mileage and pointed out that its pedals were still in good condition.
It was equipped with an eight-cylinder engine, which the host and his friend managed to bring
back to life.
The car didn’t run for long though – Wagner drove it around the block before chunks of
rubber began falling off the tires, bringing the vehicle to a stop in the middle of the
road.
But after going five decades without any care, it’s pretty impressive that the pair were
able to get it going at all, let alone take it for a short spin.
This marked the beginning of the Chieftain’s restoration journey, which will be featured
in future videos as Wagner continues to work on the vehicle that had seemed so hopeless
before it fell into his hands.
4.
A MOSS-COVERED MYSTERY
In mid-March, a car veered off a road and rolled down an embankment in Jacksonville,
Oregon.
Firefighters were perplexed when they saw that the vehicle had landed on top of a much
older car that appeared to have been sitting there for a long time.
They took to social media for help getting to the bottom of the mystery by sharing a
few photos and asking if anyone knew anything about the moss-covered vintage vehicle.
One commenter who seemed familiar with the car said that people had called and reported
it several times in the past, and that it seemed to have been left at the site after
an accident that happened long ago.
Two other social media users wrote that the car had been there for a long time, but they
didn’t seem to know anything about it.
The post did not identify the vehicle’s make, model, or year.
At least one person speculated that it was a Chevy Nomad station wagon dating back to
sometime during the 1950s.
3.
1957 FORD FAIRLANE
In 2005, Ron and Elaine McLeod took a trip to see their daughter, who lived in Colorado.
She lived next door to an elderly man and helped take care of his property and animals
in exchange for a discounted rent.
While tending to her work duties one day, the woman found an old car parked in a pole
barn.
It was covered with a tarp and looked like it had been sitting there for quite some time.
Knowing her dad would find the discovery interesting, she showed it to Ron during his visit.
He pulled back to tarp to reveal a green two-toned vintage vehicle, which he identified as a
1957 Ford Fairlane.
It only had 43,000 miles on it and it still ran!
The owner told Ron that he was good friends with the car’s original owner.
When the man died, his wife decided that the vehicle belonged with her husband’s friend.
He moved it to his property in Colorado and kept it in the pole barn ever since, only
starting it up every once in awhile to move it around a little.
Ron’s friend was interested in buying the Fairlane, but negotiations fell through when
the owner couldn’t decide whether or not to sell it.
As far as anyone knows, it could still be sitting in the barn.
2.
DOZENS OF FORD THUNDERBIRDS
In 2016, an auction house in Michigan received a truly strange call from a Grand Rapids family,
who wanted help selling their collection of over 50 classic cars.
Scott Miedema of repocast.com was among the group that met with the owners at a restaurant
before being escorted to the property.
Most of the dozens of cars inside the family’s barn were Ford Thunderbirds dating between
the 1950s and 1970s.
There were also some other vehicles, including a 1932 Ford Model B and a 1947 Pontiac Convertible.
The cars hadn’t been driven in over 30 years, but appeared to be in great condition.
Miedema towed the cars, one-by-one, to his showroom and put them on display as he prepared
to auction them off.
He estimated that they had the potential to bring in around a half-million dollars.
1.
A CENTURY-OLD ANTIQUE
For reasons that are unclear, a derelict mansion has sat, abandoned, in the French countryside
since 1959.
Someone recently ventured onto the property and found a rare 1904 Roche-Schneider automobile
that had sat in the garage, frozen in time, since the homeowners had left.
A post by Facebook user Yury Grozmani offered some rudimentary details about the car, which
was manufactured by Paris Vanvooren Atelier.
Much to the surprise of those who found the 117-year-old vehicle, its four-cylinder engine
fired up even after it had spent upwards of 60 years in the same spot.
They were even able to drive it outside and onto the bed of a waiting tow truck.
It’s currently on display at the Reims-Champagne Automobile Museum and appears to be mostly
in its original condition.
Because the car was found so intact, it’s hard to say whether it would be better to
restore it or leave it “as is.”
Thanks for watching!
Which one of these abandoned cars would you be the most excited about if you found it?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe!
See you next time, bye! :)