HANOVER COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – A young fisherman casting his line in a Virginia pond managed to find a stolen car on Tuesday.
Rachel Jones, the fisherman’s mother, told Nexstar’s WRIC she was accompanying her son Chase at the Hanover County pond when they spotted something sticking out of the water.
“We watch like true crime, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this could be a car,'” Jones said. “I just didn’t think that it was real.”
Jones called the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office to report the find. The department’s Underwater Forensic Dive Team was sent to investigate, and ultimately found a submerged Nissan Altima that had been reported stolen in 2018.
No bodies were found inside the vehicle.
Officers rigged “lift bags” to free the car from the mud below. Investigators said the car appeared to have been soaking “for quite some time,” though officials are still working to determine how the car ended up in the pond.
Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office) Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office) Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office) Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office) Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office) Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office) Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office) Hanover County Sheriff Underwater Forensic Dive Team recovers allegedly stolen Nissan Altima from pond (Photo: Hanover County Sheriff’s Office)
“It could just be a stolen vehicle and somebody needed to get rid of it,” said Sgt. Steve Wills with the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. “So they found a way to roll it down this hill into the pond. Or it could have been insurance-related.”
Jones, too, is certainly still curious to learn the circumstances behind the bizarre find.
“I just never would have never thought there would be a car in this pond. Like it’s just so small,” she said. “And there’s just really no crime or anything.”
