When she was 17 years old, Lynda Alsip saved up $800 to buy her first car – a 1967 Ford Mustang, built the year she was born, and something that would stand out in a 1980s high-school parking lot. In 1986, after a trip with friends, Alsip came home to find the car stolen — a crime that police never solved.

Until now. On Monday, Alsip was given a Chrismas reunion with her Mustang, 28 years after it went missing, a journey that turned out to have never gone further than a half-hour drive from Alsip's home central California.

"It's like winning the lottery," Alsip told KSBW-TV. "It's absolutely amazing. After 28 years, I never thought this would come back into my life."

The California Highway Patrol said it located the car after an attempt to register the vehicle by the man who had bought it raised a flag on the VIN. The current owner had bought the car as a project in 1991, according to The (Salinas) Californian newspaper, but had kept it garaged since — about 30 miles from Alsip's home.

The CHP returned the keys to Alsip on Monday, who brought along a set of custom license plates — LYNDA67 — that she had ordered for the Mustang but never had a chance to put on. The car's rough and not running, but it's nothing that shouldn't be easily fixable with a little time in the garage. "I pray to God I don't get a ticket in it my first drive in it," Alsip said, "because I'm probably going to want to go just a little fast."

