Better than that:

      	
     SF Gate
     OAKLAND
     Couple shift into high gear to find beloved stolen van
     - Chip Johnson
     Tuesday, January 23, 2007

     Perhaps it was preordained that Matt Bettman and Karin Tuxen- 
Bettman of Oakland would one day own a restored, road-ready VW bus to  
carry them to new adventures and sights. Their history is linked by  
the vehicle.

     And it could have been only a twist of fate to have it stolen at  
a Berkeley BART station two weeks ago -- but that's hardly the end of  
the story.

     The couple, who honeymooned in the van last year, launched a  
rescue effort normally reserved for lost people, and did everything  
short of displaying their Mango Green VW bus on the side of milk  
cartons.

     In the end, the hard work paid off. The couple recovered their  
van at People's Park Wednesday afternoon when they spotted it with a  
man named Guy Michael Williams, 47, sitting inside. He was nabbed by  
Berkeley police, who had been nearby and were quickly summoned.

     The recovery was a relief for Bettman, who had darn-near rebuilt  
the van, and an affirmation for the couple that the Volkswagen van,  
an icon of the 1960s hippie generation, still carried good karma inside.

     The saga began Jan. 12, when Tuxen-Bettman returned from a class  
at UC Berkeley and discovered the van was gone. She immediately  
called her husband.

     "She thought I was playing a joke on her," he said. "I couldn't  
believe that out of all the cars in that lot, someone would take that  
one." The couple contacted police, friends and sent an e-mail to a VW- 
van Web site where they were members.

     Sympathy e-mails and possible sightings started pouring in, more  
than 100 of them on the day after it was stolen, Bettman said. But  
all the sympathy and goodwill couldn't halt his sense of dread: By  
Monday morning, three days after it disappeared, he was sure he'd  
lost it forever.

     Discouraged but undaunted, the couple followed a tip that the  
van had been seen in Berkeley and spent five hours scouring the city  
for it. They came home to find yet another tip, and this one was rock- 
solid.

     "A classmate said he saw the bus and read back the plate  
numbers, it was soooo close," said Tuxen-Bettman.

     That persuaded her husband to launch a full-court press to find  
the van. He took Wednesday off work and called in the troops, his two  
best friends, Gavin Archbald and Sina Afshar. The three had toured  
the Western United States in Bettman's first VW van after they  
graduated from high school in 1993.

     "You have to understand, it's not just a car for Matt, it's like  
family," Archbald said. "We had to do everything we would do for a  
family member if he was lost."

     Wednesday morning began in East Oakland. Searches worked back  
toward Berkeley from there.

     They encountered men on street corners whom Bettman said he  
would not have normally approached, but was energized by their  
responses, which he and his friends viewed as the positive karma of  
the VW bus rubbing off onto others. All had good wishes for its  
recovery.

     "There is positive energy around these buses, and stealing one  
runs counter to that," he explained. "I just see this as good vibe  
coming back -- with interest."

     From there, the trio rolled back through central Oakland and  
into the neighborhood around 51st Street and Martin Luther King Jr.  
Way. By late afternoon, they were back at People's Park, where the  
van had been sighted two days earlier.

     As they walked in the south side entrance, Bettman saw the van  
through a clump of trees.

     "There was a guy sitting in it, so I turned away and dialed  
911," he said. At the same time, Archbald ran into a group of  
Berkeley police officers on bicycles. They arrested Williams.

     Tuxen-Bettman credits the recovery to great karma, good  
communications and the power of the Internet. "I was struck by how  
many total strangers, all of them with sentimental feelings about the  
vans, were excited to help us."

     It's a vehicle with a special aura. The couple never made a stop  
during their six-week honeymoon in the van where someone didn't give  
them an I-remember-when tale involving a VW bus, she said.

     Even their parents, who didn't know each other at the time, were  
bound by the VW fates.

     "In 1971, my parents bought a 1971 Sierra Gold VW Bus," said  
Tuxen-Bettman. "The same year, Matt's parents bought the same bus,  
the exact color. Maybe this was meant to be," she said.

     Bettman's first vehicle was a VW bus, and he's owned six of them  
since.

     The first van died his sophomore year at Chico State, his second  
rolled off a soft berm on a dirt road and down a hill, flipping five  
times on the way down the slope. He drove a third to Mazatlan in  
2003. But in all his VW travels, he had never owned one as nice as  
the 1971 model he bought for $800 on the Craigslist Web site two  
years ago.

     "It made a horrendous noise when I started it, it didn't steer  
straight and the engine rattled something fierce," he said. "It was a  
real joy to drive."

     Two years later, it had a factory-new engine, sound-deadening  
material inside, lights and curtains, and had become a comfortable  
home away from home. Its green color makes it a unique sight on the  
street.

     And after all his time behind the wheel of VW vans, they're the  
logical choice for Bettman.

     "I have a long history with these cars and I know how to work on  
them," he said.

     "Once you know the tricks, they're one of the most reliable cars  
around, but if you have to, you can fix it on the side of the road  
with duct tape and a screwdriver."

     Chip Johnson's column appears in the Chronicle on Tuesdays and  
Fridays. E-mail him at chjohnson@sfchronicle.com.

     Page B - 1
     URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/23/ 
BAGU1NN42M1.DTL
     �2007 San Francisco Chronicle

On Jan 23, 2007, at 6:13 PM, Peter T. Owsianowski wrote:

> Anyone have a link to the story?
>
>
>
> --
> Pete
> '79 Westy "Aardvark"
> '87 Westy "Joe's Van"
> '02 Audi A6 Avant
> WWW. Busesbythebeach.com