Brooklyn teacher's stolen car found during NYPD chop shop raid and returned in 'Grease' condition
Sunday, April 25th 2010, 4:00 AM
Denver for News
After Amanda Pogany's '96 Honda Accord was stolen three years ago, it was returned drag-race ready.
Gabel for News
But Pogany, a teacher, has yet to take her 'new' car out for a joyride.More than three years after a Brooklyn teacher's car was stolen, she finally got her ride back - totally pimped out.
Amanda Pogany's once-humble white 1996 Honda Accord was returned to her drag-race ready, with a brand-new V-8 engine, tinted windows, oversized tires with special hubcaps - and custom valve stem caps shaped like bullet casings.
"When I first saw under the hood I thought it looked like, you know in the movie 'Grease?' Like the 'Grease Lightning' car," said Pogany, 31, who lives in Prospect Heights.
The eighth-grade teacher was shocked when she picked up her long-lost vehicle in the Red Hook impound lot this month.
The previous "owner" souped up the Accord, putting in a manual transmission and leather interior and hanging a Dominican flag and a giant wooden cross from the rearview mirror.
"I'm Jewish," Pogany said, "and I don't even know how to drive a stick shift!"
When the car disappeared from her block in 2006, Pogany said cops laughed when she asked about tracking it down
So she and her husband, Aaron, assumed thieves had already stripped the poor little Honda for its parts.
"It was goodbye to the car," Pogany said.
Now the proud mother of a 1-year-old, Pogany had basically forgotten about the car, simply using the car-sharing service Zipcar instead.
Then she got a call from the NYPD.
An officer told Pogany that cops found her Honda while busting a Queens chop shop and were able to trace it back to her even though the VIN number had been filed off.
"I was like, 'Shut up!'" said Pogany, who teaches Judaic Studies and Hebrew language at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan.
Turns out, a major car enthusiast bought the Honda from the thieves and then put a ton of work into it, police told her. He was in the middle of paying to put in the brand-new transmission when the raid occurred.
After months of phone calls and dealing with NYPD red tape, Pogany finally got her vehicle back.
"The whole thing has been a little crazy - and hysterical," said Pogany.
She's still waiting to take it for a joyride, though. Friends have begged for a turn behind the wheel and promised to give her stick-shift lessons, but Pogany still needs to get the Honda a new VIN number and registration.
Until then, the hotrod is parked in her parents' New Jersey driveway, where it's been getting plenty of attention.
"The mailman rang the bell the other day and asked about it," she said. "Everyone wants to buy the car now."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/04/25/2010-04-25_crooks_made_my_car_speed_freak_and_then_i_got_it_back.html#ixzz0mBDwLOW6
