LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The last time Alan Poster saw his dream car, he was young and it was blue.

Nearly four decades later, he is a little grayer and the car has turned silver, but it was love at first sight all over again as the Corvette somebody swiped in New York City was returned to him.

"It's a dream. Wow, this is a beautiful model," Poster said as customs officials and others unveiled the 1968 sports car. "This is definitely a miracle. Because in speaking to the police, the odds of them finding me were a million to one."

Poster said last week that he will not drive the car much -- he has his own Mercedes -- but he is glad to have it back in his collection. He said he plans to give the Corvette to his daughter.

Poster was living in New York City in January 1969 when the car, for which he paid $6,000 three months earlier, was stolen from a parking garage on 23rd Street. Poster had not insured it against theft because he could not afford to do so.

Poster went on with his life, eventually moving to Petaluma in Northern California.

In November, the Corvette was inside a shipping container at the Port of Long Beach, destined for a buyer in Sweden. A routine customs check of the National Insurance Crime Bureau database showed that the car had been reported stolen on Jan. 22, 1969, but there was no address for the owner.

Nobody knows where the car, which represented a significant redesign for the Corvette, had been or how many hands it had passed through. While it appeared in perfect condition, some things had changed. It was silver with a red interior, had a different engine, lacked a gas tank, and its transmission had been stolen from another car.

The car was seized and New York police were notified. Two detectives spent days poring over microfilmed files until they found the report. They also managed to track down Poster and notify him that his long-lost Corvette had been found.

No arrests were made in connection with the theft either of the car or the transmission, Fleming said. The car's seller, a Long Beach collector, and the Swedish buyer are not suspected of wrongdoing, authorities said.

Poster, meanwhile, is overjoyed.

"This car was probably the last car I ever really (loved)," said Poster, 63. "It was the hottest thing around."