More than 30 vehicles have been discovered at the bottom of a lake in Florida. In a scene straight out of a Hollywood movie, images show a crane bringing cars up from the lake bed.
As to how and why they got there, investigations will reveal more, but authorities believe these were likely car thefts committed by joyriders who later dumped the vehicles in the lake, located near the Miami airport.
According to the New York Times, the discovery was made by three underwater teams representing different companies: Recon Dive, United Search Corps and Sunshine State Sonar. These companies search bodies of water for missing persons to help solve cases of unsolved disappearances. The divers arrived last Friday and, on Saturday, discovered a mini junkyard at the bottom of the lake.
The Doral and Miami-Dade police departments began supervising the recovery of the vehicles on Tuesday morning. Some of these vehicles could have contained human remains, whose deaths could in theory be suspicious.
Doral Police Chief Edwin Lopez told media that the first vehicle removed was an Acura Legend stolen around 2002. The second was a 1990s vintage stolen in the late 90s. This may have been the white Cadillac seen in the scene.
In Doral, the owner of one of the diving companies told the New York Times that the recovered vehicles may have been used during the period of crimes related to gang wars that involved cocaine trafficking. That's one hypothesis. Authorities say no bodies have been found so far and that there are no unsolved crimes linked to the vehicles found at the bottom of the lake.
Once removal work is completed at this lake, the three diving companies will move on to another body of water to continue an effort that has been underway for several years, that of locating missing persons. According to the owner of United Search Corps, “There’s thousands of waterways within southern Florida that have to be cleared. We’re just beginning to scratch the surface.”
