You'd normally expect to find trash like bottles and leftover cable around the Kirby Lake shore, but deep down in its depths lies a more valuable find.
"We had the game wardens find the car with sonar today and they marked it," said Clu Burnham, a Lake Patrol officer.
Divers are on the hunt for a car that ended up in the Abilene lake while its owner was fishing.
"He came back to his car and he says he saw it rolling off into the lake," said Burnham.
It's a first for this area of the lake and even for the workers who are used to diving for vehicles.
"Not like this, I've helped recover vehicles before but normally it was a stolen vehicle that gets abandoned," said Derek Briggs, one of the divers.
Lake patrol was sent out to retrieve the car days after it was reported.
The weekend rains brought in extra water and tougher conditions.
"This lake, there's not much visibility anyway but with all the dirt and silt that's stirred up from all the rain and water running in there will be zero visibility," said Briggs.
Poor visibility made the underwater search a bit trickier.
"Helen Keller, feel around," said Briggs.
After feeling around for more than 20 minutes, they finally found what they were looking for.
The car came up for air filled with the lakes murky water.
"There's no way to prove it we don't have any witnesses or anything that saw anything happen," said Burnham.
Now with thousands dollars worth in damages, all that's left of this treasure may just be a chest full of memories.
Lake Officials say the water level had risen some three feet since the car went into the water.....
The 2006 Mazada Miata was towed to a local wreckage barn.
The estimated damage is $14,000.
"We had the game wardens find the car with sonar today and they marked it," said Clu Burnham, a Lake Patrol officer.
Divers are on the hunt for a car that ended up in the Abilene lake while its owner was fishing.
"He came back to his car and he says he saw it rolling off into the lake," said Burnham.
It's a first for this area of the lake and even for the workers who are used to diving for vehicles.
"Not like this, I've helped recover vehicles before but normally it was a stolen vehicle that gets abandoned," said Derek Briggs, one of the divers.
Lake patrol was sent out to retrieve the car days after it was reported.
The weekend rains brought in extra water and tougher conditions.
"This lake, there's not much visibility anyway but with all the dirt and silt that's stirred up from all the rain and water running in there will be zero visibility," said Briggs.
Poor visibility made the underwater search a bit trickier.
"Helen Keller, feel around," said Briggs.
After feeling around for more than 20 minutes, they finally found what they were looking for.
The car came up for air filled with the lakes murky water.
"There's no way to prove it we don't have any witnesses or anything that saw anything happen," said Burnham.
Now with thousands dollars worth in damages, all that's left of this treasure may just be a chest full of memories.
Lake Officials say the water level had risen some three feet since the car went into the water.....
The 2006 Mazada Miata was towed to a local wreckage barn.
The estimated damage is $14,000.
Comments
So, according to the story, "the owner accidently left the car in park." I can readily see proof-reading is not a virtue or those officials never took drivers education.
Rusty R.
October 2, 2012 at 10:58 am
