DRIVING : Yesterday’s Car, Today’s Crime

When John Parks of Dunlap, Ill., set out to build a replica of the 1893 Duryea, it was to commemorate the first century of motoring, not examine its grayer consequences.

Parks, a former designer for GM and Caterpillar, spent 30 months and $20,000 on his centennial Duryea. The car was a superb copy of the first gasoline-powered auto.

A 9-horsepower golf cart engine was about the only concession to 1993. Parks fitted the Duryea with a sound system that broadcast the ker-chugga! noises of the original single-cylinder engine.

Parks recently left Illinois for Los Angeles and a six-city promotional tour. He made it to Tulsa and checked into a motel. In the wee hours, someone stole Park’s Chevy Blazer and a trailer carting the Duryea.

Parks feared the worst. Certainly nobody would be able to sell it.

Wrong. Tulsa police recovered the trailer outside a local crack house. The Blazer was located in a hospital parking lot. And the Duryea, unscathed, was found in the possession of a man who swore on Henry Ford’s grave that he bought it for $3,000 from a man who didn’t mention it was stolen.

“Tulsa police believe the Duryea was bought and sold at least three times before it was recovered,� Parks said. “Apparently drug dealers steal everything and can sell anything.�