Ex-Sonoma County sheriff's sleuthing helps uncover stolen convertible, farm equipment

Former Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Ihde was buying lightbulbs on Santa Rosa Avenue when he spotted a blue Dodge truck like the one caught on surveillance video driving away with his prized 1964 Pontiac GTO convertible.

Ihde’s mind snapped back to his days chasing bad guys. He jumped into his truck and followed the Dodge.

“I saw it going up Yolanda Avenue,” Ihde said. “I gave chase.”

He called his wife and said he’d be late for dinner.

On Thursday, four months after the Pontiac worth more than $60,000 was stolen, Santa Rosa detectives found the unique, show-worthy classic car - one of a 3,000-car run that rolled off the line 51 years ago - in an abandoned trailer parked near the Sheriff’s Office in Santa Rosa.

It was the culmination of a four-month investigation run by the multi-agency Sonoma County Auto Theft Task Force. The inquiry sent detectives to search properties from Santa Rosa to Cloverdale, and enlisted law enforcement in Montana to search properties there. It also uncovered a trove of stolen construction equipment, said CHP Sgt. Amir Tabarsi, who oversees the task force.

Police have arrested 45-year-old Michael Patrick McGinnis of Cloverdale on suspicion of vehicle theft and related theft charges, to which he pleaded not guilty in May. Two public defenders who have represented McGinnis in the case did not immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.

Tabarsi said investigators will continue to look for another man suspected in the case.

Tabarsi theorized the Pontiac was intentionally left in an overflow employee lot at the county government complex off Mendocino Avenue - a stone’s throw from the Sheriff’s Office - where it was likely law enforcement would find it.

“My guess, if I were to take a guess, is the other suspect felt the pressure of us getting close to him and they dumped it there,” Tabarsi said.

Rewind to the February day when Ihde’s heart broke as he opened his trailer and found the classic car he’d dreamed of having since he was a teenager - and had been working to restore for nine years - was no longer inside. Eighteen years retired, he called police.

At the time, detectives had few leads. The car had been parked inside an enclosed trailer at Ihde’s employer, Goodwill of the Redwood Empire on Yolanda Avenue, where he is president and CEO. Ihde said he brought it there temporarily to free up space in his driveway for another project.

Figuring he knew the surrounding businesses, Ihde asked around for surveillance footage and started watching. He eventually found footage from Feb. 2 that showed the Dodge driving away with the trailer then several hours later pulling the trailer back. This time, he now knows, empty. It had been empty for nearly a week before Ihde looked inside.

That surveillance footage helped Ihde recognize the blue Dodge pickup with a light bar atop the cab several weeks later on Santa Rosa Avenue. He followed the Dodge up Petaluma Hill Avenue, then lost it. But he didn’t give up. He drove a methodical path that wound back through the surrounding rural neighborhood until he spotted the Dodge in a driveway. He wrote down the address and license plate.

“I had to hold back a little,” Ihde said.

He left, and handed the information over to the current generation, in this case Santa Rosa Police Detective Chris O’Neill.

Ihde credits O’Neill for a dogged pursuit of what could have been just someone’s stolen car, but grew into an investigation into expensive construction equipment reported stolen in Sonoma County. That includes a tractor worth $75,000-$100,000, according to Tabarsi.

With Ihde’s tip, the task force linked McGinnis to the case and issued an alert for Sonoma County law enforcement agencies to look for him. He was pulled over and arrested in Santa Rosa on March 19.

Authorities in Montana searched property connected to McGinnis in that state, but no stolen vehicles were found, Tabarsi said.

Friday afternoon, the Pontiac was tucked behind a pickup and another car at Mark and Barbara Ihde’s Santa Rosa driveway.

The Pontiac was returned in fairly good shape, all things considered. The license plates were stripped, the battery is gone, the vintage tires had been swapped for new ones and Ihde’s binder with painstaking documentation of each step of the restoration process is gone. But as Barbara Ihde pointed out, the former lawman had a little fun dusting off his investigative mind.

“I’m ecstatic to have it home,” Ihde said. “I have a little bit of work to do to get back to my Sunday drives.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.