It was a case of love at second sight when a retired Bay Area law officer walked out the back door of the Moorpark police services complex Thursday and saw his gleaming 1956 powder blue Ford Thunderbird.

The first time that Ronald Leung had seen the car, it was buried under pigeon droppings and hay in a barn near Sacramento. He bought it for $1,500, restored it, and enjoyed it for just three years before it was stolen off a Palo Alto street in 1976.

Thirty-one years later, the car was recovered by California Highway Patrol officers in Moorpark. And on Thursday, Palo Alto resident Leung was handed the T-bird's keys and started it up, as his grown daughter giggled in the front seat and news cameras rolled.

"It feels great, there's a lot of emotion," Leung said as the car purred under his control for the first time in three decades. "The last time was B.C.: before children. It's great to have it back."

His 27-year-old daughter, Angela Leung, jumped in the passenger seat, looked in the glove box and behind the sun visor. "I wanted him to sit in it first, we talked about this car so much," she said.

The recovery was made last month when Moorpark CHP Officer Christopher Throgmorton discovered a hidden vehicle identification number on the engine frame. The car had been brought to the CHP by a Ventura County woman whose husband had bought it for her on eBay, and had it shipped out from Ohio.

Officials from San Jose-based eBay refused to discuss the matter. The company advertises that it insures car purchases made over eBay against fraud for up to $20,000, but the Thunderbird's value may be more than twice that amount, Leung said.

CHP officers have said they are seeing increasing numbers of older, collectible cars being sold over the Internet and then turning up hot when checked against the national list of stolen cars.

Throgmorton said this T-bird went through owners in Ohio, Oregon and California before being shipped to Moorpark. The statute of limitations for the original grand theft auto 31 years ago has long expired, meaning criminal prosecution of the original thief would be impossible even if he could be found, the CHP officer said.

Leung found out about the car's recovery when a Palo Alto police officer called him last month with the good news.

"I go bowling with the Palo Alto Police Department, and I thought they were pulling a joke on me," Leung said.

He said he has been on eggshells for four weeks, waiting to see if an insurance company had paid him off for the stolen car — ending any claim he might have to it.

"There was an old Allstate policy, but that was for the house, and I never could afford theft insurance for the car," he said. "It was like Christmas for the last month, I was so excited that it was there, but I could not touch it."

Allstate eventually determined it paid for personal property in the car but not for the car itself. Throgmorton's find belonged to the Bay Area resident free and clear.

Leung's long wait ended Thursday when the retired San Mateo County sheriff's deputy flew to Los Angeles International Airport and was driven by an off-duty CHP employee to meet his daughter and car. Moorpark CHP officers had washed and waxed the T-bird, charged the battery and placed it next to a pair of new CHP cruisers for the TV cameras,

Throgmorton handed Leung the keys, and he turned the ignition as cameras rolled. Nothing.

"You have to put it in neutral," Throgmorton said. The car fired up on the first second of power, and Leung laughed out loud.

"I think we know who's eventually going to get it; she's in the car giggling now," Leung said. "There were two great things in my life; the first was having my two kids, and then this."

First stop for the happy father and daughter was the house near Moorpark where the unwitting couple had bought what turned out to be a hot T-bird.

"I promised the lady who lost it that they could take some photos of it," he said. "I hope they can recover their money from eBay."