Divers Recover Paulding's Mystery Car

For the past two weeks the greatest mystery in Paulding wasn’t the Paulding Lights, but the automobile that was found sitting on the bottom of Bond Lake.

The mystery came to a quiet semi-conclusion yesterday when an old rusted 1970s Chevrolet was recovered from the shallow waters of the Lake.

The vehicle was discovered March 23rd and the local interest and mystery has grown ever since.

An attempt was made early on to identify the vehicle’s ownership when the license plate was removed from the car.

But, in a digital age the vehicle tag was no longer on the State’s Computer Systems. While sitting on the bottom of the lake, the water proved to be too murky for divers to read the VIN number.
Absolutely nothing was known about the car according to Sergeant Donald Horn of the Wakefield State Police Post.

It was a very hot five hours yesterday when the State Police began its recovery of the mystery car. At one o’clock mid-day temperatures were over 90 degrees. State Police Officer’s and Ontonagon Deputy Sheriffs were joined by local onlookers who watched from the shoreline as divers went into the sixty degree water.

The attempt to raise the vehicle that had settled into the bottom began at 1:00pm EDT. The vehicle sat up to its chassis in the lake bottom and the vehicle laid in a spot surrounded on three sides by bedrock, making the extrication very difficult. It took more than four hours for the Police Divers to recover the vehicle.

Six airbags were attached to the vehicle and when filled with compressed air raised the car off the lake bottom.
The car was pulled out from its protected spot into a position where a tow truck line could be attached to the car.

From there on it was no different than towing a car out from a roadside ditch.

The police dive was assembled from all around the state of Michigan. We were told that there are only sixteen such divers in the state.
The vehicle has been moved to a secure location for further investigation. Now, back to those lights!