Operation Coyote Rescue

The Coyote

A long time ago in the fall of 1973 a young man purchased a Toyota Landcruiser FJ-40. This was introduced as the "Go Anywhere, Do Anything" vehicle. In an effort to do just that he went up a steep hill. He lost control and on the way down eventually rolled his new vehicle having only put 1800 miles on it.

My grandpa more commonly known as Stuke helped run U&S Motors in Cedar City Utah. Hearing of the accident he found where the wrecked truck was. He acquired the Toyota through a salvage sale and began to work. He eventually fixed the FJ and it began a new life, deer hunting, helping the Lion's Club and exploring all over southern Utah.

His daughters were very fond of this as well. Gaye drove this all around Central Utah while teaching at Millard High school.

Grandpa said there was a problem though, whenever my Aunt Mar got close to it the doors would fly off even if she just drove for a few blocks to the high school (I think I'll have the same problem).


Well the Coyote had a famous career and each of us Platt Kids learned to drive in it. Camie, Brittany, and Me. I was too young to work the clutch, but I would sit on my dad's lap as he worked the gears as I tried to keep us from driving over a juniper tree on the old mining road.

Well a long time passed and the coyote was no longer ours. It was sold to one of Grandpa's neighbors, Bud Garfield. He and his son loved it and worked on it and kept it in great condition. He in fact bought another FJ and installed a new hardtop and spruced it up a bit.


Bud owned it for almost ten years and I missed the coyote all those years. Time came and went, I served a mission in Mexico, lived in New Jersey and California, sold a jeep bought another one ended up selling that one too. Got married, moved to Salt Lake, got a big boy job and found out we were expecting our first baby. HI ISLA I HOPE YOU READ THIS STORY SOME DAY CAUSE I'M SURE YOU'LL BE DRIVING IT TOO ONE DAY!!!!
I go the idea after all of this to call up Bud and see if he still had the Toy. He said he did and that he had too many projects so it was just sitting in a field out at his horse property. My dad checked it out and said it would be worth buying as it was in great shape and only has 30,000 original miles.

So after some haggling over price we decided to buy it for a slight profit over what he had gotten it from Stuke almost 10 years ago. More than a generous deal!!!

So finally we set off on a day that will live in infamy. The day the COYOTE gets rescued.

My mom came along for the trip She's helping to finance it for me, and we had a great chat on our drive. You never get tired of mommy time no matter how old you are.So with title in hand and a trailer behind the red truck. We went to break the Coyote out of jail.

There were killer attack goats that we had to negotiate with.
Then hidden behind a sheep camp trailer there it was in all its glory!!!!!

Face time with the free Coyote.

With Bud helping me steer I used a hand winch to pull the Toy up onto the trailer.
That's Bud behind the toy, nicest guy in the world.

It took three full rounds with the winch moving ten feet at a time to get it all loaded up. Yeah I broke a sweat!

Finally up on the trailer we had the Coyote back in the family.


Mom and me with the Coyote a little different color but no worse for wear. Both grinning from ear to ear. I hadn't been this giddy for years.

And thus ends the tail of the lost Coyote. I think back about the path it took and probably the necessary round about way it had to come back into our lives. If I would have had this in High School I wouldn't have loved it like I do now. I don't know if I had owned it before the mission if it would have "Waited" for me. If I had it when I was first married I probably would have sold it for something more stylish. If I would have owned this when we first found out we were pregnant I would have sold it for something baby safe.

At the end of the day this is the right time and the right place.

I want to say thank you to everyone that made this happen. Thank you Bud so much for still having the Yota and loving it almost as much as I do. Thank you Mom and Dad for helping track this down and financing it for me. Thank you my Sisters for loving this as much as I did growing up and pushing me to find it. Thank you Aunt Mar for not loosing the doors to the Toy.

BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST THANK YOU SO MUCH MY SWEET BABY FOR INDULGING ME, LETTING US SELL OUR CARS AND GET YOU SOMETHING BABY SAFE, LETTING ME TAKE TIME TO GO TO CEDAR TO PICK IT UP, AND MOSTLY FOR KNOWING THAT I AM AND WILL FOREVER BE THE FIVE YEAR OLD LITTLE KID SITTING ON DAD'S LAP DRIVING THROUGH THE JUNIPERS.



Welcome Home Coyote!!!