The Green Bay Police, Green Bay Fire Department and dive team were dispatched to the East River in downtown Green Bay Friday morning to retrieve a car from the river. But everyone searching for the vehicle was surprised what they ended up finding in the murky waters below.
Just off of North Quincy Street and University Avenue there have been three cars discovered in the East River in the last year alone. Today authorities discovered not one but two vehicles, one of them they weren't’t even aware of.
Early Friday morning the Green Bay Police received a call from a woman who told them, her car could be found in the East River.
"She got caught up on the rocks and actually put her car in the river," says Lt. Steve Mahoney of the Green Bay Police Department.
"I’m not sure how that happened? Because I can't see where they would enter the river at," said Marion Glass who watched the search unfold as he took a break from his job.
North Quincy Street does not go over the river, which the driver found out the worst way possible. But it's what the police discovered in their search efforts that left them shaking their heads.
"When I saw the first vehicle I thought that was it. I thought it was done," adds Glass.
"We quickly realized that that wasn't the vehicle we were looking for. It was covered in zebra mussels and obviously in the river quite a long time," adds Lt. Mahoney.
The first car discovered was reported stolen back in April. The dive team still had one more care to find, in East River’s murky waters, before they could call it a day.
After several hours the second vehicle was located, with the help of sonar equipment. As the evening rolled in everyone on scene in downtown green Bay was left with a reminder that in this job and in this river, you never know what you'll run into.
Police say they have contacted the owner of the stolen vehicle that was in the East River since April, but they think they will have a hard time pulling any evidence out of the car to help determine who stole it.
The driver who called police this morning to tell them that she lost her car in the East is said to have incurred no injuries as a result of her wreck.
