Smoke in the Wires February 2017

ed from the back of his farm. The thieves, expecting no traffic through a tree farm immediately after
Christmas, had stashed it until they could dispose of it. Incredibly, the vehicle was almost completely
undamaged. Everything was still in the car from the night it was stolen.
Although the Defender was returned, Grant’s struggle to get it to the United States was not over. With a
planned return to the US in the early summer of 2016, Grant duly
tried to ship his vehicle over. In doing so, he learned that the restriction was not by model year, but by
assembly date. With an October 1991 build date, the Defender wouldn’t be travelling to the US with Grant
and his family. In fact, it couldn’t even leave the UK port until past the 25 th anniversary of its build date. He
left it with a friend to be shipped in the fall.
Fast forward through a long wait to start the shipment, a long ocean crossing and a long customs process
before the Land Rover finally arrived at the Atlanta debarkation yard in late January 2017. The family made
a two day outing to go retrieve their long-awaited Land Rover. It was a lengthy journey, but certainly worth
the wait.
Smoke in the Wires February 2017 Page 20