The Mystery Machine was spotted parked in front of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) on Wednesday, but Scooby Doo and the gang were nowhere to be found.
However, Tate Moyer of Ontario, the owner was in the BMV doing business. Moyer and his wife have three daughters who enjoy riding in the van, as do their friends. He has discovered that when he’s driving the Mystery Machine, he needs to allow himself a little extra time to get to his destination.
“Everybody wants to have their kids’ picture taken in front of it all the time. You should see how many times I get thumbs up. As soon as I pull up at a traffic light, we get thumbs ups; there are admirers. We go to the store or the mall and there are people snapping pictures left and right,” he explained.
“You know how many smiles I get with that thing,” Moyer asked, indicating the van.
Three weeks ago he took the Mystery Machine to Lake Erie. “Right outside the Thirsty Pony, which is right outside of Cedar Point, it’s off-track gambling, and there were so many adults out there snapping pictures,” said Moyer, “Two days after we had it, I ran into somebody at Meijer’s and they said they saw the van on Facebook.”
Moyer is in charge of sales for Expressway Auto Parts, Ltd. in Crestline. The business is owned by Matt and Angie Songer. They originally purchased a van that they were going to make into a Mystery Machine, but it was too damaged, so they used Moyer’s van instead.
“We were going to do it for his [Matt’s] wife’s Halloween party, which was a charity for Avita. I think for Avita they actually got First Place [at the party], and then we were just going to keep the van out if anyone wanted to use it for Halloween parties or birthday parties or things of that nature,” said Moyer.
He also took the van out for trick or treat. “And my buddy John Kelso, who owns Kork & Kap in Crestline, and his wife Tasha and two other couples dressed up as the gang, and they even had a villain and drove to a Halloween party,” added Moyer.
The work was done in house: painted and with decals added. It was completed three days before Halloween.
Moyer praised the Mystery Machine’s creator, “The gentleman who painted it is named Kevin Oney and he’s the one who does all the work, all our paint. He just decides to do something. He’s got a 64 Buick he just did. It looks like it’s sterling silver, and what he did was, he made it look like it’s an airplane. It’s got lights on the front; it’s got bullet holes in it. It’s hard to explain. He has all of these projects and he drives them for a while, and then he goes on to the next one. He’s very, very talented.”
The Mystery Machine isn’t Moyer’s first unique vehicle.
“Five or seven years ago, I had a Barney Fife car, a 67 Ford. It was just like it: decals, siren, police light. It was an exact replica of Barney Fife’s car,” he said.
Moyer bought the Ford from the man who painted it. He eventually sold it to a Crestline resident approximately three years ago. “And she’s won about six or seven different car shows with first place for originality and that kind of thing,” said Moyer.
Expressway Auto Parts currently has a hotrod and a 57 Chevrolet truck with new floors and Chevrolet engine. “We made it look like an old derby car. It’s very cool,” stated Moyer.
Well, the future of the Mystery Machine may be the next mystery. Moyer plans to keep it for at least a couple of years. He even found a Scooby Doo seat belt should pad for the van.
“Everybody wants to have their kids’ picture taken in front of it all the time. You should see how many times I get thumbs up,” said Tate Moyer.
