The 1965 car was found in January before it could be shipped to Canada and then to Finland.
Knoxville, Tenn., police spokesman Darrell DeBusk says a man named Joseph McDonald reported it stolen in 1974. He says a phone number left by McDonald no longer works.
DeBusk says McDonald may have been a college student in Knoxville at the time. The car now is white but was red in 1974.
Federal border agents in Detroit who checked the paperwork discovered that the 1965 Beetle was reported stolen. The last owner, a Michigan resident, didn't know that history. The vehicle was being sent overseas to be restored.
