Frank Zavlanes v. United States

In October, 1965, Frank Zavlanes and Gary Breese were workmen at the Redmond Plastic Products plant in Kansas City, Missouri. During the night of October 18 or the morning of October 19, Breese’s Missouri license plates disappeared off his car at the plant. (Breese worked regularly but from time to time he worked on each shift, the company operating around the clock.)

On the afternoon of May 7, 1966, Zavlanes appeared at the used car lot of the Greenlease Motor Car Company, Cadillac dealers in Kansas City, Missouri. He expressed interest in a used white 1964 Oldsmobile 98 convertible coupe, serial number 884M059934, but was refused permission to take it away for testing. The next morning, Saturday, all the Greenlease Company had left of the car was the memory of it and its own set of keys.

The car was located eventually in January, 1967, near San Diego in a repair shop where Zavlanes had left it for extensive repairs. And, it had on it Breese’s license plates. Zavlanes readily admitted he drove it from Kansas City to California. If Greenlease (and not Zavlanes) owned the car, all of the intent required of Zavlanes by the Dyer Act (interstate transportation of a stolen motor…