It’s been almost four decades since Stephen Christensen patted the fenders of his beloved 1960 Porsche Roadster.

The sleek, head-turning vehicle was stolen from his garage in San Francisco in 1969.

“I reported the theft that morning, but the police didn’t get to my house to take the report until late that afternoon,” Christensen, 65, said. “I pretty well figured the car was at least in Los Angeles by then, and that I would never see it again.”

Wrong.

Thanks to some pretty in-depth investigative work by two Napa California Highway Patrol Officers, Scott Lander and Ian Cheverier, Christensen and his long-lost “baby” have been reunited.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news.

When the car was stolen from the garage at Christensen’s San Francisco Twin Peaks home, it was in good running condition.

“All I got back was the body. The engine, seats and other components were missing,” he said. “I really wanted to get it restored to driving condition, but it have would cost about $35,000. I can’t afford that. I sold it to a person who restores these types of cars. Fully restored, the car is worth close to $100,000.”

The complete story of the Porsche’s long journey back to its owner may never be known.

The stretch of time between when the car was stolen and ended up back in Christensen’s possession is a little foggy, according to Lander.

Earlier this month, a man went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to verify the VIN numbers of several older Porsches, Lander said. “I believe he is a Porsche mechanic.”

Because the cars were much older models, the DMV referred the man to the CHP.

“The records had purged from the DMV system, but we still had the VIN numbers in our system,” he said. “While checking the numbers, I came up this one Porsche Roadster that had been reported stolen in 1969.”

Christensen’s Porsche was recovered in Sonoma County. No arrests were made.

“It has been such a long time since the car was stolen, and we have no idea how many times ownership could have changed, we don’t really have a suspect,” Lander said.

Lander said he and Cheverier did some leg work and were able to find Christensen, who now lives in Windsor.

Christensen said the two CHP officers are being far too modest about the lengths they went to find him.

“I really give the CHP the utmost credit for the job they did. I don’t think any other law enforcement agency would have gone to so much trouble to find me,” he said.

The investigation began at the last address where the Porsche was registered — Christensen’s parents’ home in San Francisco.

“The two officers went to the house and of course my parents hadn’t lived there for some years. I think the house had changed ownership several times. But they didn’t give up there. They nosed around the neighborhood and found one neighbor who remembered my parents and that I was a firefighter,” Christensen said. “The officers contacted the fire department and were able to track me down. I really believe what the CHP did was far above their call of duty. These two guys really went to bat for me. No one else would have gone through that much trouble to see I got my car — that is now a shell of a car — back after all those years.”

Christensen said his girlfriend told him the CHP had called, and they had found his Porsche.

“I said, ‘What Porsche? I don’t own a Porsche,’” he said. “Then I thought, ‘Wait, they couldn’t be talking about my roadster that was stolen 40 years ago.’ But sure enough, it was. I really wished I had the money to restore that car. I really loved it. It was my baby.”

Christensen said he bought the car in 1967 from a German lady in San Francisco. “It still had the German license plates on it. It was in excellent condition. All I had to do was pay $1,000 for a paint job. I can still feel how good it felt to be sitting behind the wheel of my Porsche.”