Greatest lost and found car story ever as man reunited with 1979 Trans Am after 25 years thanks to private investigator

A man was reunited with his beloved Trans Am car after 25 years apart, thanks to the help of a private investigator.

Joe Gransden, a jazz trumpeter, was besotted with his black 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.

It was the joy of his teen years after buying the motor at the tender age of 17 in Rochester, New York.

Now 53, he wept tears of joy when he laid eyes on the vehicle once again, after having no choice but to sell the car in 1993.

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Where was the car found?

The search began in the late ’90s and it went on for years. When the search began, Gransden didn’t have a VIN number which made the hunt for the car even harder.

After being urged by his son to continue the search, Gransden’s beloved car was found under a tree in Arab, Alabama.

Unfortunately it had been reduced to a rusty shell of its former self.

Car owners are naturally very emotional when reunited with their lost four-wheelers.

This man from Fresno was reunited with his 1967 Dodge Dart six months after it was snatched.

In an even greater stroke of luck in the instance of car theft, another person from Fresno got his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air back mere hours after it was stolen.

How did they know the Trans Am was Gransden’s?

The model had a buff mark on the fender that he had put on it years prior, which was still unmistakably there decades later.

Gransden bought the car for $6,000 (£4,653)and had it restored.

He had enlisted the help of private investigators to help track it down.

The unlikely mission saw Gransden, a private investigator and a mechanic, analyse a list of owners to find it. 

The Trans Am has been restored and Gransden couldn’t be happier.