INDIANAPOLIS — "It's just part of the family. We feel like we've lost a child," Jill Campbell-Bennett said.
The 1970 Pontiac GTO is more than just a classic car for the Bennett family.
"Both of my kids came home in the hospital in it. It was in our wedding," she said.
Bennett says it was part of the family for 27 years until it was stolen at the La Quinta Inn on Executive Drive near the Indianapolis International Airport.
"I had to tell my husband to breathe. It was quite emotional," she said.
The Bennetts are from upstate New York. They were cruising through Indianapolis on June 26 to get to a GTO National Convention three hours away.
The classic was being pulled in an unmarked trailer. When they woke up the next day, it was gone.
"The car was gone. They undid the straps. They cut the door and it was empty," Bennett said.
She virtually pointed out the front parking lot near the dumpster as where the theft happened.
It was caught on camera.
IMPD shared pictures with WRTV of the two suspects vehicles — A black truck and a white truck.
One suspect can be seen in a black shirt and khaki shorts walking to the back of the trailer.
The Bennett's are also desperately asking you to be on the lookout for their green 1970 Pontiac GTO.
At the time, it had an orange and black tiger tail sticking out of the trunk with a sticker on the back window.
"We've had a lot of memories in it for sure. If anybody sees it we'd love to get it back," Bennett said.
The classic is worth around $35,000, according to the police report, but the owner of Ray Skillman Collector Car Sales explained they're priceless for families.
"There can be relationships with cars, especially if you got to really restore one correctly. We restore cars here and every nut and bolt are off. There's not one thing that we didn't do to it. The bottom of it is restored, just like the top part that you never see. There's a lot of man hours involved in doing something like that," Skillman said.
Skillman says a thief can get anywhere from a few thousands of dollars to millions for a classic.
"I hope that these people have the car insured because there's several companies that insure classic cars. That takes care of the monetary part, but sure it doesn't get your favorite vehicle back," Skillman said.
If you have any information call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477 (TIPS).
