Danno

Bingo. Actually, Manfred Mann covered the original that was recorded 2 years earlier by The Jerry Hahn Brotherhood. Those guys were from Wichita. Bobby Stout was a real person, a Captain on Wichita PD who ran the narcotics unit and had quite a controversial career. Oh, the stories I could tell . . . Now, if I can get this to work . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM9ixolXZQk

"And I owe the man one more year. Yes, owe the man another year." Nobody? Another clue: "Mama stays in Chicago. Papa stays in the ground."

But it was shoplifting. Not bribe-taking or other forms of corruption. There is a big difference. Generally, shoplifting by someone with adequate income is an illness borne of the internal thrill of doing something wrong in such a conspicuous place without getting caught. It has nothing to do with economics and shoplifters are not 'on the take.' The kind of 'on the take' graft and corruption southpier refers to is an entirely different breed. That's where willing criminals offer and pay bribes to criminals willing to accept and take the bribes, generally in exchange for professional accommodations or favors. That's different than stealing hobby supplies from an unwilling victim.

Special Engineering? Or, Special Education?

I think I've seen one built up . . . on the club's contest table . . . but it was orange and had "01" decals on the sides.

Allow me to correct myself. I just learned the police union has forced some changes on the process. By allowing the sergeant to resign rather than firing him, he is eligible to apply for pension benefits.

Antenna? How does anybody type on that keyboard when it's behind the driver and facing the wrong way? And, what's the point of a shotgun laying loose on the package tray? Regardless, nice color and paint finish!

Excellent!! Very convincing: it looks right!

Of course! But not so much 'lost' as 'p!ssed away.' He resigned in lieu of firing. You don't get a pension when you quit. That's the way it works. There's only four ways to end a law enforcement career of that many years. If you have enough years of service (he did), you can ask for retirement and if you qualify, they will retire you with whatever pension you've earned. Or, you can quit in which case you cannot get a pension. Or, you can be fired, in which case you are not eligible for pension. Or, you can die in place. Had this guy not resigned, he would have been suspended, prosecuted and upon conviction, fired. Then he would not be eligible for pension. Any way you look at it, he paid A LOT for his decision to not pay for a few hobby supplies. But, like I said, I have no sympathy. He made his own choice and he had to know better, unless he was mentally ill with a disorder that caused him to take irrational chances of being caught . . . like kleptomania or some other 'crying out' disorder.

I don't see what you are referring to when you say there are RS emblems on those cars. I don't see any. There was no conflicting badging on Z/28s. They had the 'Camaro' script on the fenders behind the front wheel wells, but the only badging on the cars was the Z/28 emblem. Actual 67 and 68 Z/28s had grille, front fender and rear panel Z/28 emblems, just like the 69. Guido and James are right about another point: There are so many 'other' Camaros that have been adulterated by adding Z/28 emblems to various iterations (including 6 cyl base models, RS, SS, and SS396 models) that you have to be careful about looking at individual units. Is it a REAL Z/28 or is it a poser? Chevy Parts guys sold A LOT of Z/28 emblems!

Yikes x4!!!

"And I owe the man one more year. Yes, owe the man another year."

Almost right. The Z/28 had no badging at all except the Z/28 badges. Neither "RS" nor "SS" appeared on a Z/28.

No police officer is ever paid so little that they "need" to steal. That's just moral bankruptcy or mental illness. A morally bankrupt person should not have the job. A mentally ill person should have gotten himself help; there are plenty of avenues. For a supervisory officer with as many years on the job, as in this instance, to throw away his integrity, 29 years of career, pension, benefits, and self-respect suggests to me that his problem was mental illness. {A morally bankrupt person would have been going for more than hobby supplies.} It's sad . . . but I have no sympathy. He should have gotten help.

Spoilsport!

In the late 60's, unmarked cars generally had no colored lights mounted inside. They usually had a pair of round, red lights (or blue in Southern states and a few renegade Northern areas) hidden behind the grille. If you don't open the grille, you can't represent them. A lot of agencies used a Federal Fireball - a small beacon - on the dash or magnetically attachable to the roof with a long, coiled cord (think Starsky & Hutch). But, depending on what kind of unmarked car you plan to represent, some had nothing. Detectives didn't usually go rushing to most scenes with lights flashing and sirens screaming, TV and Movie lore notwithstanding. So, it wasn't so important, and most unmarked cars didn't light up like Times Square. Another common piece of equipment was a hand-held spotlight with a steady-burning red sealed beam. It was kept in the interior (usually hard-wired) and would be held up to signal a vehicle being stopped. In the 60's and late 60's, few agencies used unmarked cars for patrol applications or traffic stops. They were primarily employed as transportation for detectives or ranking staff. As such, emergency response was seldom a part of the unmarked car's resume, so there was little concern about emergency lights or sirens. In fact, often the detective cars were de-commissioned patrol cars. The external/rooftop emergency lights were removed, the markings were removed, the car usually received a cheap repaint job, and the Federal Fireball (or similar product) was plugged into the cigarette lighter. For this reason, if an unmarked car was equipped with a spotlight, it would be consistent with the patrol vehicles. In other words, if marked units had a driver's side spotlight only, then the unmarked units would have a driver's side spotlight only. If the patrol vehicles had dual spotlights, then the unmarked cars would have dual spotlights. In most agencies, unmarked cars with dual spotlights would have a red bulb on the passenger side. California, however, usually had a red bulb in the driver's side for signaling traffic. One thing you didn't bring up: antennas. Again, most commonly, whatever the patrol cars used was what the unmarked cars used. All of this relates to the 60's and late 60's. To some extent the early 70's, as well. However, by the mid-70's new products were coming on the scene. More and more agencies began experimenting with non-traditional equipment. More agencies began using unmarked cars in more imaginative and non-traditional ways. But that's off-topic for your '68 Fury.

Did you know their cousin, Thelma Thunderthighs?

I get a kick out of the dudes who post a list of kits they'd like to see manufactured . . . and as you look at it, you realize ~ ~ ~ they've already been kitted!

I did a sentence in Kalamazoo in '72. (Well, the company I worked for sent me there as a trouble-shooter to clean up some problems and get things back on track.) It was snowing when I drove into Kalamazoo and it was snowing when I drove out four months later; same storm. Two big impressions from that experience: (1) Dominos. Dominos started in Kalamazoo and I had never seen pizza delivery before. It was still in embryonic stages then. (2) Checkers. Checkers were manufactured in Kalamazoo. And everybody and his brother had one or drove one. They were everywhere. New ones, old ones. Taxis, sure. But more! There were civilian Checkers running around in every color of the rainbow, some fully dressed with chrome trim and bumpers and full wheel covers, some with racing stripes and mag wheels, some dropped low, some with jacked-up rear ends and oversized wide rear tires. I even saw Checkers with vinyl tops and some with custom paint - stripes or flames or metalflake! Old people, middle aged people and even teenagers driving Checkers! It was unbelievable. I saw a Checker police car. I saw a customized Checker with a chopped top. Unforgettable. Years later, I saw the movie 'Drowning Mona.' It cracked me up because Mona's town was so like Kalamazoo in '72! Just swap the Yugos for Checkers.

Four doors aren't so bad. I've had a few that were aces. I've also had some (company cars) that weren't. The 4-doors I've owned: 1959 Chevy Impala flat roof ~ transportation to college classes ... faded, bloated, indestructible, ugly, but what a Hoot! A true 'who cares?' car! 1970 Coronet police package ~ wow. big but lithe, mo-power, fast, throaty, and EVERYBODY thought it was a cop car, both civilians and cops! 1977 Nova police package ~ rocket sled. Z28 had sex with a go kart and ended up with two extra doors. Handled like nobody's business, too! FAST! 2006 VW Passat Turbo ~ Okay. So now I'm older and the knees don't work as well after all those years. But this car is FUN! And luxurious. And cool. And relatively fast.

Of course.

You've got to be kidding me.

Nice colors.

Thanks, Tim. Looks like this new reissue is a big improvement over the original issue. Glad to see Revell make the changes!

This is a thread that has potential of going into thousands of posts and hundreds of pages!