STANDUP' Gen Lee for sale on Ebay.........

[FastbackJon]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=22441

[70charger_boy]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=22441

Wow, why is it that every time there is a controversy regarding the General Travis Bell always has to be involved?

[BMOTOXSTAR]

 

[Mike DC]

         
There's also some articles in Mopar Collectors' Guide about the car too.  Here's one of them.  (Sorry, it had to be posted in three big chunks because of the size.) 
I highlighted a couple of particularly relevant sections of it:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"WHEEL STANDING GENERAL LEE REPO'D"

ORIGINAL OWNER ORCHESTRATES ELABORATE TRAP
TO GET HIS CHARGER BACK!

Sometimes we end up feeling all warm and fuzzy inside because we get to play a part in doing something good for the hobby. This month we're very pleased to report that a very long struggle to right a wrong has come to a dramatic and successful conclusion. And, we're quite pleased that the chain of events leading up to this successful ending began in the pages of MCG.

Going back to our June, 2002 issue, we ran a reader letter from Scott Heise asking if anyone knew the whereabouts of the long lost wheel standing General Lee Charger that had been built for intended use in the last episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. Richard Sephton, who oversaw the acquisition and construction of the Chargers for the television series, built the wheel standing General Lee in 1984, using a blown 440 sitting where the rear seat would normally be for power.



The Charger was never used in the series as the show's producers decided the giant tires and the blower in the cockpit would be to hard to disguise. However, in the latter part of 1984, the Charger enjoyed a brief period of fame, appearing in a couple of national magazine articles. Richard made future plans to make exhibition passes at drag strips up and down the West Coast. With the demise of the show, most of those plans were placed on the back burner as Richard worked on other projects. The wheel standing General disappeared from the public eye.

In the late 1980's, Sephton wanted to bring the Charger on the road, and was very close to signing a major beer company as a sponsor for a national tour with the car. For this tour, several modifications were made - the General Lee "turbine" wheels were replaced with wider Centerlines, and zoomie stacks and heat shields were added for more eye appeal. Rich was still working on the Charger when a nasty divorce occurred in 1988 and things went terribly wrong.

Rich's ex-wife laid claim to the Charger, among other things. Amidst the legal battle over who owned what, she did a really nasty thing - she sold the car! But, it's really much more heinous than just that, because lawyers were involved and there was some major unprofessional activity going on. The title to the Charger was in Rich's name, and when he got wind of what was going on before the car was sold. So, Rich sought, and got a federal court order instructing his significant other not to touch the Charger or any of their other cars until the terms of the divorce were settled. His wife's lawyer directly violated the court order and sold the Charger to a man in Washington State in early 1989 - much to Rich's disbelief. Then the charger vanished.

By the time the divorce was over, both state and federal courts agreed that the lawyer and his ex-wife had no right to sell the Charger and that it was still legally the property of Rich Sephton. That being the case, the wheel standing General was a fugitive from justice and had to maintain a relatively low profile.

(continued . . . )

[Mike DC]

Proof of how well it remained hidden is borne out in how many times Richard came close to locating the car, only to be disappointed time and time again. For fourteen years, Rich attempted to locate the Charger and get it back, but each time he'd get close to the car, he found himself chasing a wild rumor. He knew generally where the General Lee was, but couldn't nail down exactly what had happened to the car.

Then, after our reader letter from Mr. Heise ran in the June, 2002 issue, we were stunned upon arriving at the All-Mopar Spring Roundup in Seattle, WA. There, on Sunday May 5th, was the wheel standing General Lee! After having just spoken with Richard about all the details on the car less than a month before and being told how frustrated he'd been in trying to find the car, here it was sitting on a trailer at a big Mopar show!

The owner wanted to remain somewhat anonymous, but told publisher Rob Wolf that he had hauled the Charger to the show specifically for us to see it and feature it in MCG! The owner had seen Mr. Heise's reader letter and wanted people to know the car still existed. Naturally, we shot the photos and ran a feature on the Charger in our September, 2002 issue.

When we questioned the owner about the car's paperwork and informed him we'd been in contact with Richard Sephton, who claimed he still rightly owned the car, the owner dismissed the claims and stated he had legal paperwork that he owned the Charger and Richard had no claim to the car. We knew this was going to be interesting, so we stayed out of it and let the chips fall.

With the printing of that September issue, the proverbial sh*t hit the fan. Richard was thrilled that the car had finally surfaced and in short order, had the new "owner's" name and address. Also, getting involved at this point was Travis Bell of The General Lee Fan Club, who also sought and got the owner's name in order to invite him to the upcoming Dukes Convention (DukesCon 2002) in Indianapolis in August. Eager to get the wheel standing Charger back in the public eye, the man agreed to trailer the Charger to Indy if he could get his room and board paid for. Travis agreed to this, and step two in the recovery process was underway.

Richard found out through Travis that the car was coming to Indy in August, and furthermore, they knew where the car would be staying. That was all it took to get things rolling big-time. Richard contacted the Indianapolis Police Department and explained his situation to them, faxed them some of his paperwork, and was then instructed on what they needed to authorize a legal repossession of the car. What they got was a deluge of paperwork far in excess of what they requested. In fact, one of the senior auto theft officers assisting Richard informed him he'd never seen such an airtight case of ownership in his entire career. The Indy Police Department put Richard in contact with Consolidated Recovery, Inc. - the city's premier auto repossession company and the recommended team for the job.

Richard drove to Indy in his Jeep Cherokee and everyone held their breath. Again, Richard's been close to finding the car before, but each time something went wrong. For the better part of the preceding week, he didn't get much sleep fearing that once more something would go awry.

Staying at a hotel across the street from the one, the owner of the wheelie General had been booked into, it was Rich's daughter, peering out of the hotel window that first saw the car arrive. The "Stand Up General" was hauled to Indy in an enclosed trailer, and they watched as the trailer was unhooked and left in the back of the hotel parking lot. Indy Police and the trucks of the repo company were ready to move as soon as opportunity would arise.

Around midnight, the unsuspecting Seattle man left the hotel to pick up his significant other at the airport. She had opted to fly out instead of endure the long ride. That was the break the team was waiting for. They put a chase car on the guy from Seattle who was in constant radio contact with the recovery team letting them know where he was at!

(continued . . . )

[Mike DC]

In minutes, two tow trucks converged on the trailer along with the Indy Police and Richard. Using Rich's paperwork, the only step necessary for the police was to verify the car's VIN. A Policeman went inside the trailer, verified the VIN on the dash with Rich's current title for the car, exited the trailer and told the repo boys to get busy. One guy with a radio got into the trailer, closed the doors, and unhooked the tie downs and got it ready to roll - literally. Once loose and he was sitting in the driver's seat, he radioed that all wad ready. One tow truck latched onto the front of the trailer while the doors were opened and the ramps put down. The trailer was titled back, the Charger rolled out. As soon as it stopped, another tow truck was there to latch onto it and tow it away.

In less than fifteen minutes, start to finish, the Charger was out of the trailer and on a roll-back truck parked two blocks away! The Charger was already in the police impound yard before the Seattle "owner" had even reached the airport!

Needless to say, there were some heated words the next day at the impound yard, with both the Seattle man and his lady exchanging harsh words with the police and Rich. But, Richard held all the cards. He had come to Indy with the car's original title in his name, a newly issued California title for the car in his name, all his court documentation saying the car had been illegally taken from him. Most important of all, he held a federal court order stating he was the legal owner of the car and that it had been wrongly stolen from him in 1989. He even had the black California license plate which matched the one on his ex-wife's Barracuda, and when the car was wrongly sold in '89, his wife stuck one of the plates on the Charger.

On the other hand, the Seattle "owner" had no paperwork on the car whatsoever, according to the repo company and the Indy Police Dept. Literally, the guy had transported the car halfway across the country with no title, no registration, no nothing! Not even a bill of sale; nothing. That in itself surprised the police department. It took some stern words from an Indy officer working on the case to settle the day. He reminded the Seattle man quite matter-of-factly that he was in possession of stolen property which had a federal court order issued on it, and in addition to that, had transported that stolen property across a bunch of state lines. If Richard wanted to, he could have the fellow arrested on the spot and he'd be facing some serious jail time! Of course, Richard didn't want any of that, he simply wanted his car back. Faced with the fact that he'd lost the war and was lucky not to be going to jail, the arguments ended and Richard had his car back!



Heading back to California, Richard stopped at a friend's home in Oklahoma. While there, he decided to check out the Charger to see what condition she was in. Since our September issue, the transmission had been reinstalled, but the shifter was hooked up backwards. Someone installed a high stall torque converter (not what you want in a wheelstander) and the brakes were shot. Basically, everything was a mess.

The major problem he uncovered was that the 440's head bolts hadn't been torqued down! Some of them were literally only hand tight. The blower belt was installed backwards, and the timing was so far off it was doubtful the engine could have even fired. As far as Richard could tell, the engine hadn't been cranked in a while, and he's certain that had it been fired with loose head bolts, the blower would have blasted the hell out of the 440.

After a day of turning wrenches, Richard fired the motor up and did a couple of hard launches in Oklahoma just to see if the old girl could still pull the wheels. Yes, it can! The task is made more difficult due to the torque converter, but the nose leapt into the air several times, much to everyone's delight.

By the time you read this, the wheel standing General will be back in Rich's California garage. Richard's planning a full restoration on finishing the work that was interrupted over twenty years ago, If all goes well, Rich plans to have the General out on the Mopar show and race event circuit next summer! After twenty years of waiting, Richard Sephton's finally back in business!!!



Operation recovery, start to finish. At top left, the charger arrived at Indy in an enclosed trailer, which was kept under observation from a hotel across the street. Step one in the repo operation was to allow an Indy police officer into the trailer to verify the car's VIN and give the recovery team the "go" signal. Once this was done, the trailer doors swung open and this is the view which met Rich's eyes. It was the first time he'd seen the car since 1989. The repo man in this photo is preparing to release the car's tie downs. Within fifteen minutes of the trailer doors opening, the General was on a roll-back truck located two blocks away and was being strapped down for the trip to the police impound yard. Below: The morning after. This was Rich's first chance to have a really good look at the car, as the events of the previous night had been so hurried. Obviously, with those two fluffy pups standing guard, nobody was going to make off with this thing again! Not without losing a major limb anyway.



Back on track for the first time in over two decades! Rich's daughter Amanda poses with the General at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Oklahoma prior to proceeding on to California. Amanda was an infant when the General disappeared in 1989, so she wanted to be there for the car's recovery and is justifiably proud of her dad's work with the Dukes of Hazzard series. Yes, Rich did fire the blown 440 on this occasion after setting a few problems right, and while running far from perfect, the car still effortlessly lifted the nose just enough to let Rich know he was back in the saddle again. A whole new 440 is currently being built, as on another pass in California the old engine lifted the blower off the intake with a bang that seriously got Rich's attention! If all goes well, look for the Stand Up General at some major Mopar events this summer. Who says there's no such thing as a happy ending?

[justin1987]

I was just fixing to post that same articel Mike.

[Charger_Fan]

I wonder if the car runs now, after the blower explosion.
I wonder what sort of ownership papers are supposed to go with the car to guarantee whoever wins the bid on this thing hasn't just bought themselves a 4-wheeled hornet's nest?

[FastbackJon]

Nice article Mike, but it is out-dated. And I haven't had any respect for MCG since that article. They should probably be thankful they weren't sued for their involvement.

As for "fugitive from justice" and "low profile" hahaha, that's funny. Just goes to show how far off MCG was when they wrote the article. Rich could have bought it in '92 at the Portland Swap meet, and it was cruising around at various car shows when I was a kid ten years ago, along with being at the Spring Roundup back in 2002 .

If the current owner had any doubt to his ownership, he wouldn't have trailered it all the way across the country to Indy for the Dukes Convention to display it in front of all of the Dukes fans, which is where the whole mess started.

[FastbackJon]

The Spokesman-Review
Doug Clark
August 22, 2004
---------------------------------------------
Car chase ends in Spokane, perhaps finally
---------------------------------------------
Lawyer Gerri Sirek sits on the Standup General, a car made for the hit televison show "The Dukes of Hazzard," on Thursday. Besides Daisy Duke's delectable derriere and Boss Hogg's dimwittedness, "The Dukes of Hazzard" provided fans of TV's cornpone classic with another sure thing. Somewhere in each episode that souped-up orange General Lee would be runnin' from trouble. And for the Standup General - one of the surviving 1969 Dodge Chargers built for the popular 1980s series - nothing has changed.

The hard-luck hot rod was seized by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in late July at a Dukes show reunion at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was soon sent back to its rightful Spokane owner. For now at least (knock on wood), it sits safely in a locked garage on Spokane's North Side. The return of the General (valued at $100,000-plus) ended two years of treachery and turmoil as wacky as any Dukes script. "This would be a great made-for-TV movie," says Spokane attorney Gerri Sirek. "I'm just elated. I didn't think we'd ever see this car again."

Credit Sirek for the happy ending.

Other lawyers saw the case as a complex time-gobbler and declined to get involved. Sirek says she took it on because of the sheer injustice. It was clear that Kaye Hughes and Bryan Batch were victims of "a very well-orchestrated scheme to steal this car."

The Standup General was snatched from Hughes and Batch two years ago in a scam more reminiscent of "The Sting" than hayseed Hazzard County. The Spokane residents were lured to Indianapolis under the pretext that they would display the vehicle at a nearby Dukes celebration. While Batch was away from his hotel, a repo crew moved in. They cut the locks on his trailer, removed the Charger and took it away.

"It was a total setup," he says, noting that months of planning went into the scam. The people involved even used video surveillance to track his movements.

Why would anyone go to such lengths over a car? Some history will explain.

The Standup General was built by Rich Sephton, who supervised buying and building the Chargers for the series. During the show's 145-episode run, 150 Chargers were battered and bruised. With its trademark "01" on the side and rebel flag adorning the roof, the General Lee rose to pop icon status. The General was "recently named most popular car in the history of film and television in a national survey," reports a "Dukes of Hazzard" Web site. The Standup was a one-of-a-kind exception from the fleet. It got its nickname for being designed to "stand up" on its rear wheels. To do that, the huge 440-cubic-inch Magnum V8 engine was installed where the back seat should be.

But the car was never used in the show. Sephton became the legal owner. Until 1989, that is, when his ex-wife sold it. The car changed hands once more before Steve Hughes, Kaye's husband, bought it for $8,000 in 1992.

Steve showed his Standup General at car shows throughout the Spokane area. He used it as a promotional prop in his job with a soft-drink bottling company. Then Kaye inherited the car when Steve died in November 2001. Batch's interest in the vehicle is as a partner in storing and maintaining the General Lee as well as paying legal fees to get it back.

Many of the details surrounding this case are too convoluted and tedious for this venue. What matters most happened last May, when Sirek won a default judgment in Spokane County Superior Court. The court agreed that Kaye Hughes "is the rightful owner of this vehicle." And that Sephton and another man, Travis Bell, set up the "elaborate trap" to grab the Standup General in Indiana.

Sephton has always claimed his ex-wife sold the car improperly. That he had a federal court order preventing the sale because of his bankruptcy. Maybe one time he did. But attorney Sirek proved Sephton had long ago lost any ownership.

Winning in court was sweet. Getting the car back was another matter.

Sirek says her biggest break came in convincing local authorities to enter the Charger into the national crime database as a stolen vehicle. When word got out that the Standup General was appearing at Dukefest 2004, the Tennessee Highway Patrol moved in to snatch it back.

It would be nice to hear Sephton's side in this. Unfortunately, he declined my offer to comment until I read through paperwork he promised to mail to me. A person who answered his home phone earlier, however, wasn't so reluctant. Identifying himself as James Smith, he talked about how the Tennessee cops didn't do things right and that judges had been paid off.

"When the FBI gets involved things will turn around," he vowed.

Buckle your seatbelt, Cooter. It looks like there's another episode brewing in this car chase.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was the last judgment involving the car, three years ago, looks like ownership has been clearly settled.

[Brock Samson]

wow! what a Drama!

Sounds alot like the custody battle for Tyrannosaurs Sue...

  http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0716794624

[Charger_Fan]

I'm just glad I have no interest in bidding on the friggin' thing.

[Drache]

God in Canada that case would have been over so god damned fast! In Canada if you are in possession of a stolen vehicle no matter how many years it was passed the car will be given back to the first owner it was stolen from and you're out the car or any money you paid for it.

Infact someone posted a story on these boards about a lady in the states who bought a car off ebay only to get told it was stolen 20 years before and had to return it to the owner so she was out money on the bid. This was all over the news.

So what I don't understand is how did this all happen? Car is stolen from Man "A" with original title, man "B" eventually ends up with stolen property almost 20 years later and police even say so. So where is the confusion? 

[FastbackJon]

So what I don't understand is how did this all happen? Car is stolen from Man "A" with original title, man "B" eventually ends up with stolen property almost 20 years later and police even say so. So where is the confusion? 

Man "A" (Rich) just wanted you to think it was stolen from him in the first place to gain support, when in fact it wasn't stolen from him, he legally lost it (seized by the state) all those years ago because he couldn't pay his bills. And that's not coming from me, that's what the courts decided.

[Brock Samson]

so your saying the ex/wife didn't sell it out from under him?.

[70charger_boy]

so your saying the ex/wife didn't sell it out from under him?.

California is a 50/50 state so the car was hers to sell

[Ghoste]

I know for sure I wouldn't want to touch any part of "owning" or purchasing that thing as things seem to still sit.

[DodgeChargerNeeded]

Do like they did with that Barry Bonds ball a few years ago. The court ordered it auctioned off and split it between both parties. That would solve everything.

[Red Ram]

Turn it into a parts car or go out with a bang...reinstall the trunk 440 a drive it off a short pier with a big sound system that exclaims "whooo-hooo" as it sinks into the ocean.

[Mike DC]

 
Nobody said that California wasn't a 50/50 state. 

But the problem is that Rich got 0/100ths of that car's sale in 1989, and it was done against the court's wishes.

The title to the Charger was in Rich's name, and when he got wind of what was going on before the car was sold. So, Rich sought, and got a federal court order instructing his significant other not to touch the Charger or any of their other cars until the terms of the divorce were settled. His wife's lawyer directly violated the court order and sold the Charger to a man in Washington State in early 1989 - much to Rich's disbelief. Then the charger vanished.

By the time the divorce was over, both state and federal courts agreed that the lawyer and his ex-wife had no right to sell the Charger and that it was still legally the property of Rich Sephton.

I'm not saying that Rich Sephton is all right and the Batches are all wrong.  I'm not a Federal Judge. 

I'm just saying that it's still unsettled.  And I'm saying that Rich probably had at least as much legal ground to stand on as the Batches do.

[Drache]

 
Nobody said that California wasn't a 50/50 state.  But the problem was that Rich got 0/100ths of that car's sale in 1989:

The title to the Charger was in Rich's name, and when he got wind of what was going on before the car was sold. So, Rich sought, and got a federal court order instructing his significant other not to touch the Charger or any of their other cars until the terms of the divorce were settled. His wife's lawyer directly violated the court order and sold the Charger to a man in Washington State in early 1989 - much to Rich's disbelief. Then the charger vanished.

By the time the divorce was over, both state and federal courts agreed that the lawyer and his ex-wife had no right to sell the Charger and that it was still legally the property of Rich Sephton.

And thus it was classified as a stolen car and thus why the Indy Police allowed the car to be repossessed.

[jasonfromIKILLYA]

I think the important thing to pay attention to here is that this was done in Indianapolis.  I spent 17 years stranded there, and you could have fooled those cops with some crayons and construction paper.

[Mike DC]

 
California, Indianapolis, Washington, Tennessee . . .  they've all had a hand in this. 


If you wanna bring up the idea that things are forged, then you can cherry-pick which paperwork is "real" until it proves whatever you want it to. 

   

[70charger_boy]

Rich Sephton seems like a bitter ass crybaby.  His wife sold the car.  If the car was at all important to him he would've moved it to a secure location, but he didn't.  She sold it and he should've cut his loses.  If he was so talented he could've built another one.  He sucks and travis bell sucks

Oh, the car was sold so it was not his!!!

[Drache]

Rich Sephton seems like a bitter ass crybaby.  His wife sold the car.  If the car was at all important to him he would've moved it to a secure location, but he didn't.  She sold it and he should've cut his loses.  If he was so talented he could've built another one.  He sucks and travis bell sucks

Oh, the car was sold so it was not his!!!

Actually if the title was in his name that means his wife could not legally sell it without written consent from Rich. Obviously you've never been married otherwise you would be singing a different tune. The wife sold the car without his consent and against a court order which defines the car as stolen property.