A classic Ford Shelby Mustang that has been idle for 26 years is looking for a home.
Elizabeth Rotfeld of Port Chester sued her former in-laws, Lisa and Robert Weigel, for allegedly trying to take her Mustang after storing it in their garage for decades.
Rotfeld says the car is worth at least $100,000 and could sell for $250,000 or more.
“While the monetary value of the car is extremely high,” she states in an affidavit filed with a July 8 complaint in Westchester Supreme Court, “the true value to me can’t be measured in dollars. That is because the car was my late husband Mark Bottali’s prized possession.”
Bottali was killed in a 1996 accident on I-684 as he was driving a different car home to Patterson, Putnam County, from a wedding rehearsal in Port Chester. He was 41 and a sergeant with the Rye Brook Police Department.
Rotfeld inherited Bottali’s cherry red 1966 Shelby Mustang GT 350.
In 2002, she sold her home in Patterson and had no place to store the heirloom Mustang. Her husband’s sister and brother-in-law, the Weigels, offered to store it in their garage in Dover Plains, until she could find a suitable place for it.
There was no discussion of a fee, Rotfeld says, but it would be reasonable for the Weigels to expect to be paid something for storing the car.
Rotfeld says she has paid for and kept the car registered and insured in her name for the entire time it has been stored by the Weigels.
She has drifted apart from the Weigels, according to the complaint, and has not communicated with them in years.
But recently, she alleges, her late husband’s brother, Gregory Bottali, told her that the Weigels claim they own the Mustang, they are selling their house in Dover Plains, they are moving to Florida and they plan on taking the car with them.
Zillow.com lists the ranch house as having a pending offer for $449,000.
Rotfeld is demanding that the car be returned to her, arguing that if the Weigels are allowed to keep possession or ownership, they will be unjustly enriched.
Supreme Court Justice Charles D. Wood issued a temporary restraining order on July 11, ordering the Weigels not to sell, move or operate the car pending outcome of the case.
Attempts to contact the Weigels for their side of the story were unsuccessful.
Rotfeld is represented by Rye Brook attorney Steven D. Feinstein.
