Los Angeles, Sep 18 (IANS/EFE): The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office in Los Angeles returned to its owner a 1967 Jaguar convertible that had been stolen 46 years ago and was discovered last month being shipped to the Netherlands.

Almost half a century ago on a street in Manhattan, attorney Ivan Schneider, now 82, lost one of his most prized possessions, a Jaguar XKE.

Hopes of ever seeing the sports car again disappeared longer ago than he can remember, but as if by some miracle, authorities found the Jaguar in August and Schneider got his first sight of it Wednesday.

The theft of the Jaguar marked Schneider's life. The attorney feels that the year he drove the roadster was one of the happiest of his life, so much so that the Jaguar is always present in memories of his youth.

At the wheel of his convertible he chased around New York's expressways at more than 160 kph, so that when it was stolen he thought he had lost a part of his life.

"I walked up and down Madison Avenue, then up and down 5th Avenue, and it wasn't there," he told reporters. "I was heartbroken."

In 1967, he was thinking about changing his first-edition Ford Thunderbird for a new oval-shaped car. He had considered a Porsche model, but when he saw the Jaguar XKE he fell in love forever.

"It's gorgeous. It looks like a bullet almost. It's a car they should make now again," Schneider said

The owner's love affair with his car was shattered March 13, 1968. It was 11 p.m. when he saw it for the last time.

Schneider thought his Jaguar had been spirited off to South America and that he would never see it again.

He plans to take the car back to his home in Florida and spend more than $60,000 on its restoration.