Richie finds it difficult saying goodnight to his date Gloria while his father waits in the car to drive him home. Richie pitches the advantages of owning a 2nd family car to Howard. Howard agrees and throws in $200 towards the purchase. He reminds Richie however it won’t be his but the family’s car.
Fonzie offers to sell Richie a car named LOVE BANDIT he won in a drag race. Richie says he doesn’t think it is what his father had in mind for a 2nd car, adding his Dad’s idea of cool is leaving the top button on his sports shirt open.
Fonzie shows Richie’s father the car but Howard is unimpressed. “This is not a car a grown man drives. It’s more like something a little kid peddles.” However after agreeing to paint the car a nice shade of ‘family blue’ and removing the hot-rod shiny extras, the sale goes ahead.
Richie soon learns the car is stolen. Fonzie paints over the number plate and the plan is for Richie to drive the car directly home from Fonzie’s garage, and leave it there until Fonzie can get in contact with the person he got the car from.
On the way home however he bumps into Gloria, who asks him for a lift. Richie drives them both straight to his garage, where he parks the car and then offers to walk Gloria home the rest of the way. Gloria thinks Richie is acting very strangely.
The next morning Richie wakes to the sound of the 2nd family car being driven out the driveway by Howard and the rest of the family, all packed for a vacation. Richie runs out to stop them, and eventually the truth about the car being stolen comes out.
Fonzie then brings Rocky Baruffy, the person he won the original LOVE BANDIT from in a drag race, with him down to the police station. Together they explain the idea of the car being stolen is actually just a large misunderstanding.
The actor who played the detective down at the local police station was Karl Swenson(1908 – 1978). Among a great many film and television roles, he appeared in these four movies –
