Altered state: Indiana drag racer’s stolen pickup truck found, but dragster still missing

The Indiana man whose truck, trailer and prized drag car were stolen in September from a Collinsville parking lot still has more questions than answers, even though his truck turned up abandoned in St. Louis last month.

That’s because Jason Tabscott’s truck, a nearly new GMC Sierra 1500 that used to be blue, was found parked on a St. Louis street just a few blocks away from million-dollar estates and the trendy Delmar Loop with a new crude silver paint job, heavily tinted windows, moderate body damage and bullet holes in the back of the truck.

The trailer and the white 1975 Chevy Camaro Tabscott spent 15 years building are still missing.

‘I was just in disbelief’

According to Collinsville Police Detective Mark Kuechle, the manager of an apartment building in the 5600 block of Enright Avenue in St. Louis asked a police officer to run the VIN number of the truck he’d seen parked on the street for several days. The officer’s search revealed it was Tabscott’s stolen truck.

“I was just in disbelief that somebody stole it, painted it and tinted the windows. They took the time to totally disguise the vehicle, like some movie,” said Tabscott, of Camby, Indiana.

Tabscott was with his family and some new friends in the Ruby Tuesday restaurant on Bluff Road on Sept. 19 in Collinsville after participating in Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week, a week-long cross country drag racing event that concluded at the Gateway Motorsports Park in nearby Madison. When they left the restaurant, the truck, trailer and the dragster were gone. A rear window of Tabscott’s wife’s SUV was broken, shattered glass littering the rear seat where her purse had been left inside the vehicle. His truck keys were in the purse.

“It (the truck) had obviously been repainted in some type of garage,” Kuechle said. “It was quasi-professional. It’s not like someone just used cans of spray paint.”

Tabscott, when he finally saw the truck for himself, was a bit more critical.

“I could not believe what had been done to it. It’s the worst paint job you could ever imagine,” he said. “My interior has silver paint all over it. They painted under the hood. Why?”

That wasn’t all. There are 4,000 more miles on the truck now than when it was stolen just more than two months ago.

There were three bullet holes its right rear tail light. Whatever gun play occurred during that time appeared to be two-way: Several shell casings were found inside the cab on the floor and in the passenger door. Whoever had the truck smoked because Tabscott said “it reeks.” He said they even left a rap CD in the player.

And then there’s the truck’s license plate. According to Kuechle, it was “located on a different stolen vehicle in the city of St. Louis” a few days before Tabscott’s truck was discovered.

After wrangling with insurers and a dealership, he drove to St. Louis recently to recoup his truck.

‘Drive it like you stole it’

“Honestly it opens up so many more questions. It’s a piece of the puzzle, but it just made the puzzle bigger,” Tabscott said. “My opinion is it went on a drug run of some kind.”

Illinois State Police crime scene technicians processed the truck, but Kuechle said the truck was parked outdoors for a long time and that “their processing of the vehicle didn’t yield a whole lot.” What evidence was found on the inside, Kuechle said, “is not going to directly link us to who took the truck, only to who had possession of it in St. Louis.”

Police still have no solid leads on who stole the truck, trailer and dragster, and they still have no idea where the trailer and dragster are.

Meanwhile, Tabscott’s trying to keep a sense of humor about it. “Drive it like you stole it,” he said.

‘Hopefully we’ll be back’

Now, it’s a waiting game as the insurance company and dealership examine the truck to decide whether to declare it a total loss. Tabscott hopes that’s the conclusion they come to.

“I want my truck, but that’s not my truck anymore. I saved bonuses and extra cash for five years so I wouldn’t have to worry. That was the whole point to buying the vehicle,” he said. “But now it’s almost a pile of junk.”

He also wants his dragster back. “I’m kind of a religious fella and I’m trying to figure this one out. But I will prevail, and hopefully we’ll be back at Drag Week next September.”

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Collinsville Police Department at 618-344-2131.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Altered state: Indiana drag racer’s stolen pickup truck found, but dragster still missing."