Here's a video relating the story of a New York teacher who had her 1996 Honda Accord stolen 3 years ago. Obviously, she never expected to get the car back.
It turns out that when a car IS stolen (even in Brooklyn), the man is on the case. A little while back, the Accord was found in a chop shop in Queens with the VIN filed off. Luckily, the police still l managed to track the car back to its original owner.
When the woman got it back, the Honda had been updated with a VTEC power train and its transmission was converted over to a stick shift!