A vehicle that was stolen in 2009 has been found after spending the last 10 years at the bottom of a lake. 

On February 25, a joint police operation recovered the vehicle from Awoonga Lake, about 40 mins south of Gladstone in Queensland.  

Photos posted online of the car being pulled from the lake show the vehicle covered in rust with large patches of paint worn through to the metal beneath. 

The front bumper bar is missing and the tyres appear slightly flat but other than that, the vehicle is in one piece. 

‘Can understand why the owner didn’t want to pick it up,’ said one commenter. 

‘That would buff out,’ another joked.  

The vehicle was discovered four days earlier on February 21 when marine officers from Maritime Safety QLD located an object in the water about 100 metres offshore. 

New generation side imaging and down imaging sonar was used to take screenshots of the vehicle which they then sent to water police, according to QLD police.  

Queensland Police Service Divers, Water Police, Gladstone Area Water Board, and Maritime Safety QLD then joined forces to locate and recover the vehicle at the site. 

Divers floated the vehicle with airbags and it was then winched onto a tow truck. 

The vehicle was identified as a Ford, date of manufacture 1999, and had been reported stolen in 2009. 

Officer in Charge Water Police Gladstone, Sergeant Jeffrey Barnett, said this was an excellent example of the ways that a publicly available technology could be used to assist police work.

‘Should owners and operators of this new sonar technology locate an item they believe may be of interest to police, they should take a screen shot of the item and the GPS position and then contact Policelink,’ Sergeant Barnett said.

‘I also spoke with the owner of the car who couldn’t believe it had turned up after all these years, but surprisingly wasn’t overly keen to pick it up in its present condition.’

Police have urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.   

Source: Australian Police.