Family in Hanover finds stolen car in pond while fishing

HANOVER, Va. (WWBT) - On Tuesday, Hanover County first responders recovered a stolen vehicle out of a pond after a family fishing discovered it.

Rachel Jones, who discovered the car, said over the last few years, her son’s favorite fishing spot has been a blue pond off Harbor Hill Drive.

While her son, Chase, has perfected his cast, he has yet to catch the big one until Tuesday when his family saw something emerging from the water.

”It looked like a car door, so we watched the magnet fishing and like true crime, and I was like, oh my gosh,” Jones said.

Jones said the last time she was at the fishing spot was about a week ago, and she couldn’t remember seeing a car in the water.

She said recently, the water level has been low.

”It was probably maybe like 8 to ten feet out from the water, so it wasn’t that far,” Jones said. “If I wanted to, I probably could have swam out to and touched it. That’s how close it was.”

Instead, she called the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, who called in Hanover Fire and EMS to deploy kayaks in the pond.

They were soon able to confirm the large object was a car after being able to read its license plates.

”We decided it was probably best to call our forensic dive team out to investigate a little bit further to determine if the vehicle was occupied or not,” Sgt. Steve Wills, with the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, said. “Obviously, if it was occupied, our thought process was we wanted to contain and preserve any potential evidence.”

Wills said they eventually pulled the Nissan sedan out of the water to find the driver-side window and down and only a bag inside of what appeared to be tools.

He said the car was reported stolen from an owner who had tied to Henrico back in 2018.

Based on the algae build-up on the car, he thinks it has been down there since it was reported stolen.

“It could just be a stolen vehicle, and somebody needed to get rid of it, so they found a way to roll it down this hill and into the pond, or it could have been insurance-related,” Wills said.

He said as of right now, they’re just looking at this case as a stolen vehicle now recovered.

Jones hopes this is the last big catch for her neighborhood for a while.

“I’m a little surprised because it’s here,” Jones said. “I’ve been here for four years, and I just would have never thought there would be a car in this pond like it’s just so small, and there’s really no crime or anything. I just figured that it wouldn’t be here.”

If you know anything about this car, please call the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office at (804) 365-6140.

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