Action News has obtained surveillance video of the theft. Winter is a senior at Buchanan High School, in Clovis. He said he was always careful with his classic muscle car since he and his father spent countless hours restoring it.
"Uh, it hurts," Winter said. "I put a lot of work into it, you know, with my dad."
The 18-year-old high school senior said the car was a gift from his parents for his 16th birthday and quickly turned into a labor of love. "I have a job and I've been putting thousands of my own dollars into it," he said. "I always kept it locked, sometimes I'd unplug things so it wouldn't start."
Around 11:30 Thursday morning someone was able to get the car started and drive away with it, even though the car had a Club on the steering wheel.
Grainy security video shows the Mustang speed through the parking lot and then take off down the street.
"It's a huge loss and one that you can't really replace," said Randy Winter, Chad's father. He said he spent a year and half looking for the perfect car for Chad.
"That was the whole idea of it, kind of a father son project," Randy Winter said. "With classic cars it's always fun to do that with a father son restoration project, so that's what we were doing up until now."
"It's a bad feeling to see your car drive away," Chad said.
Clovis police told Action News there are no solid leads other than that surveillance video. But, the family is offering a thousand dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever stole their classic car.
Anyone with information about this stolen car is asked to call Officer Todd Stino at the California Highway Patrol, 559-331-0796.
