Phone calls to strangers, voice mail messages and hours of anxious waiting have filled much of the past two days for Kevin Lagodinski.
The Fargo man has taken up a full-time search for the 1968 Camaro once owned by his brother, Kim, who is dying of cancer. Kim's wife, Barb, began the search Sunday with a classified ad in The Forum; since then her story has made the radio, elicited help from strangers and even stirred the interest of a former governor.
But as of Friday night, the Lagodinski Camaro search continued.
"If it's meant to be, it will happen," said Kevin, who was up until midnight Thursday working on the search.
Earlier that day former Gov. Ed Schafer called Barb and Kim, offering to help navigate the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Lagodinskis have gone to the DMV, Kevin said, but without a vehicle identification number the department couldn't help.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thinking that the car might have been turned into a dragster, Kevin called area race tracks to see if anyone has seen such a car. With fiberglass fender flares and a circle cut in the hood to fit a large air cleaner, there aren't many '68 Camaros that could be mistaken for his brother's car, Kevin said.
One promising lead has the car traced to a man named Larry Jones, who grew up in Christine, N.D., the town where Kim sold it in the late '70s. Kirk Ronning of West Fargo said he grew up with Jones and remembers him with a car that perfectly fits the Lagodinski description.
"I'm about 99.5 percent sure that it's the same car," Ronning said.
But the Jones family moved to Alaska years ago, and Ronning didn't know where any of them lived today. Even if they did find him, he said, the car may not be around.
Ronning said Jones got into an accident with the Camaro in Moorhead a few years after he bought it. Ronning never saw the damage, but a friend told him it looked beyond repair.
Despite that news, Kevin and the others keep looking, continuing a search that has amazed the woman who started it all.
While talking over all the help they've received, Barb told Kevin she had no idea her wish for her husband would reach this far.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Dave Forster at (701) 241-5538
