Oxman
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Man’s Small Plane Keeps Getting Stolen and Returned — and the Mysterious Thief Even Replaced the Battery
A California man's small plane was repeatedly stolen — but it reappeared with a replaced battery. Jason Hong, 75, of Yorba Linda, initially realized his plane was gone on July 28. It then reappeared at a local airport, then disappeared and reappeared one more time.
A California man’s small plane has been stolen multiple times — and the thief seemingly repaired it.
Yorba Linda resident Jason Hong was celebrating his 75th birthday on July 28 when he decided to pay a visit to his plane, a 1958 Cessna Skyhawk, which he keeps at the Corona Municipal Airport, per the Los Angeles Times.
However, he was met with an unpleasant surprise upon arriving at the airport: the plane was gone.
Hong reported the plane missing to the Corona Police Department, thinking that he may very well never see it again.
However, Hong told the outlet that he then received a call from the La Verne Police on July 29 informing him that they had found his plane parked at the Brackett Field Airport, which is about 23 miles northeast of Corona.
Bewildered, Hong decided to take the plane's battery out with the intention of coming back the following weekend to properly inspect the vehicle. He told the L.A. Times that he figured no battery meant no one could steal it.
However, when he returned on Sunday, Aug. 3, the plane was again gone.
He soon got a call from El Monte Police, who told him his plane was sitting at San Gabriel Valley Airport — which is about 18 miles west of where he had left it. Stranger still, whoever had stolen the plane had replaced the battery, which would have cost them hundreds of dollars.
Hong looked up his plane on the tracking website Flight Aware and was able to confirm that it had been in the air several times in July.
Hong — who has since chained his plane at San Gabriel Valley Airport as he waits to inspect it — told the L.A. Times that he is still trying to make sense of what happened.
“Someone breaks into your house, they’re looking for jewelry or cash, right?” he said. “But in this case, what’s the purpose? It’s like someone breaks my window, and then they put a new one up.”
Hong also said that he reasons whoever has been stealing his plane must have flight training — because “landing is not easy” — as well as knowledge of plane mechanics, because they knew what type of battery the plane needed and were also able to install it.
So far, the only potential clue comes from a regular at the San Gabriel Valley Airport who told Hong that he saw a petite, middle-aged woman sitting in the cockpit on several occasions. The man said that the incident stood out because he wondered why the woman would opt to sit in the plane on a hot day instead of in the air-conditioned airport.
Authorities also remain mystified.
“This plane just keeps disappearing out of the blue,” Sgt. Robert Montanez of the Corona Police Department told the L.A. Times. “It’s just weird.”
He added, “There’s no camera video, there’s no real leads as to who stole the plane.”
