The morning after what would have been their 22nd wedding anniversary, a grieving widow woke up Saturday at her Santa Monica home and discovered that a cherished gift her husband left her had apparently been stolen.
Two-and-a-half years before Mickey Sills died of sinus cancer in January 2014, he bought his wife Kimberly Long a 1957 Chevrolet Nomad.
Kimberly had since used the car for her daily commute and parked it in the 2300 block of 24th Street (map), where it was last seen on Friday.
“It’s a great car, it’s a classic car, they only made 6,000. There’s not that many on the road anymore. But it’s more about the emotions that are tied to it than anything,” Kimberly Long said.
The car was a surprise for Kimberly, whose family owned a similar vehicle when she was growing up.
“It holds so many special memories for me. It was nice to get into that car everyday and feel Mickey around me,” she said. “I got in the car yesterday and just thought about him all day long … thought about him all night when I came home, and then woke up this morning and it just wasn’t there. It seems like a cruel joke.”
The Nomad was black with vintage plates, a third brake light strip that had been added on the back of it; and red, white and black pinstripes.
Correction: An earlier version of this article erroneously reported Mickey Sills’ name. The story has been updated to reflect the correct name.