A 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle left a single-car garage in unincorporated South Sacramento, California, on the afternoon of Aug. 29, according to a Stolen 911 case listing, and its owner was still without the stolen 1970 Chevelle when CBS Sacramento reported the story Oct. 12. Surveillance cameras recorded the whole thing, CBS said: someone breaking into the garage, finding the keys and driving away, in about two and a half minutes.
Marc Hinch, a retired California Highway Patrol auto theft investigator who now runs Hinch Investigations and Stolen 911, is helping search for the car. He told CBS the suspect seen walking toward the owner’s home on the video is wearing what appears to be a University of Houston “Dad” shirt. “Someone knows who that is,” Hinch said.
Surveillance video of the Aug. 29 theft, as published by CBS13 CBS Sacramento. The footage carries a Stolen911.com watermark.
What the case listing says and doesn’t say
Stolen 911 describes the car as a gray-and-silver 1970 Chevelle SS 454 convertible with a black soft top and two black center rally stripes, and it cites a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office case, number 26-266700. The listing gives the time as around 4:12 p.m. and names Penal Code 459 (burglary) and Vehicle Code 10851(a) (vehicle theft) as the offenses. Those are the sections the listing cites, not charges against anyone. Neither the listing nor CBS names a suspect, and as of Oct. 14 The Auto Wire found no public report of an arrest or a recovery.
How California law counts those two and a half minutes
Each step on the video lands in a different section of the code. The state’s burglary statute, Penal Code 460, makes a burglary of “an inhabited dwelling house” or “the inhabited portion of any other building” first-degree burglary and calls every other burglary second degree. Section 461 sets the first-degree range at two, four or six years in state prison; second degree carries up to a year in county jail or a felony sentence under Penal Code 1170(h). Whether a garage counts as part of an inhabited home is what separates the two, and nothing public says how this garage is built or whether it is attached to the house.
Taking the car is a separate offense. Vehicle Code 10851(a) reaches anyone who “drives or takes a vehicle not his or her own” without the owner’s consent, with intent to deprive the owner of it “permanently or temporarily,” “whether with or without intent to steal.” The penalty is up to a year in county jail or a felony sentence under Penal Code 1170(h), a fine of up to $5,000, or both a fine and imprisonment. Because the statute covers a temporary taking, a prosecutor doesn’t have to prove someone meant to keep the car, so a joyride and a car that never comes back sit under the same section.
The car itself is a third category. Penal Code 487 sets grand theft at property worth more than $950 for most things, but subdivision (d) lists “An automobile” as grand theft without any value test. A prosecutor would not have to establish what a 1970 Chevelle is worth to call its theft grand theft, and the $950 line that applies to a stolen bicycle does not apply. No one has been charged in this case, so none of it has been applied to anyone.
Statewide car thefts fell about 25 percent in 2025
The CHP counted 133,372 stolen vehicles in California in 2025, about 25 percent fewer than the 176,230 in 2024, according to its July 28 release. Sacramento County’s count was 5,061, down 23 percent from 6,572, per the CHP’s 2025 vehicle theft fact sheet.
The Auto Wire has covered other stolen Chevelles this year, including a 1971 Chevelle the CHP recovered after 33 years, with DMV, insurance and title questions still to settle, and a 1972 Chevelle SS that a federal indictment says sold for $9,500 cash with no title, a deal in which the buyer is charged too. The August theft of a 1965 Impala from a La Puente body shop raised the insurance side of the same problem.
Where the Chevelle search stands
The Sheriff’s Office holds the case, and Stolen 911’s listing says it takes anonymous tips. The next step is the one Hinch described: someone has to recognize the shirt. The footage is public on CBS13’s Facebook page and on CBS News Sacramento’s Instagram account. Asked what he would tell whoever has the car, the owner told CBS, “They’re coming.”
Recognize the shirt? Tips go to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, case 26-266700. And for everyone else: the thief found the keys inside the garage. Where do your classic’s keys live?