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Meier grew up in Whittier with short stints in Fontana and Ontario, the son of a truck driver who would sometimes pick up loads from the massive food distribution warehouse in Riverside that would eventually become home to The Recycler Core. The nearly 300,000-square-foot facility, which stretches 1,000 feet in length, fits 7 to 8million automotive parts. The aisles, packed with matching parts, resemble scenes in the original “Star Wars” film from 1977 when the heroes find themselves in peril inside an intergalactic trash compacter.

“I wanted to do something I believed in. I wanted to recycle,” he said.

He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. One of his only vices may be buying too much of the commodities he sells just in case a customer might come along and need a hefty supply of manifolds, a part for a Model A or Ferrari or any other core part for a model of car, foreign or domestic, he said. And he has a fondness for the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” of the Disney universe for its warning that despite the character’s ability to wield great magic, it can all end fairly swiftly if not controlled.

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THIS!!

Francois Knorreck started working on this unique motorcycle-car, 10 years ago. It took him 10 years and $20,000 to complete this masterpiece he calls the Snaefell. He used a Laverda motorcycle and put together the car using whatever parts he got his hands on.

He turned it into this:

The detective said the four were at someone else’s property on S. Jefferson Avenue on Friday and were loading the vehicle onto a trailer when a relative of the owner saw them and called police.

A report by Officer Ryan Moore says the suspects had tried to load the old vehicle onto a trailer, but left when they saw the owner’s relative.

Detective Gragg said the “come-along” pulling equipment the suspects were using had broken and they left to get more equipment.

A federal program to get old clunkers off the road had a bumpy start.

That’s one finding in an appraisal of the Retire Your Ride program, which ended in March.

An evaluation completed in February suggests there were plenty of potholes in the program’s early days.

The Conservatives announced the so-called scrappage program in 2008. It offered Canadians incentives, such as public transit passes and small amounts of cash, to junk older vehicles.

Environment Canada hired Ottawa consulting firm Goss Gilroy to evaluate the program shortly before it ended. The Canadian Press obtained the report under the Access to Information Act.

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