This iconic Ferrrari 308, stolen in 1987, has been recovered by US Customs and Border Protection in 2016.

A red Ferrari stolen 28 years ago from a California car lot has been found by US Customs and Border Protection and prevented from being exported to Poland after a month-long investigation.

The 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi with 45,000 miles (72,420 kilometres) on it is the same model actor Tom Selleck drove in the classic television show Magnum PI.

Investigators took possession of the car on April 8. No one has been arrested.

US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION The stolen Ferrari 308 sits in a US Customs warehouse.

The Ferrari – valued at US$50,000 (NZ$72,740) – now belongs to Travelers Insurance, which paid off the original owner after the car was stolen in 1987.

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At the end of February, the Ferrari, which had been sold by a Los Angeles dealer to someone in Europe, was in line to be shipped out of the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport. An official from US Customs and Border Protection noticed that the vehicle's identification number was the same as another Ferrari exported to Norway in 2005.

SUPPLIED A file photo of Tom Selleck posing with a Ferrari 308 in the television series, Magnum PI.

That sparked an investigation – with Customs preventing the car from being exported.

"It was like finding a needle in a haystack," said Lee Harty, spokeswoman for Customs. "Something just didn't look right."

Customs, the National Insurance Crime Bureau and the California Highway Patrol began looking into the vehicle's history. It turned out that the identification number on the 1981 Ferrari actually belonged to a 1982 Ferrari, which did get shipped to Norway, said Lou Koven, an official with the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Officials traced the 1981 Ferrari going to Pennsylvania. The stolen Ferrari then made its way into the hands of a Texas man, who in 2015 sold it to a dealer in Los Angeles. The dealer flipped it to a buyer in Europe.

Between 1987 and 2005, the Ferrari's whereabouts are unknown, Koven said.

"It's a mystery," he said.

With the help of Ferrari representatives and Newport Beach police, investigators eventually discovered the car was stolen on July 19, 1987. "It was a real connect-the-dots," Koven said.

The original owner expressed interest in buying back the car, officials said.

Koven said the the buyer from Poland, the LA dealer who sold it to him and the Texas owner likely had no idea the car was stolen.

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-The Orange County Register/TNS