NOTTS: Police divers make shock discovery at bottom of lake

Specialist divers from Notts police made a surprise discovery at the bottom of a local lake - a 30-year-old Ford Capri.
The Capri car pulled from beneath the waterThe Capri car pulled from beneath the water
The Capri car pulled from beneath the water

Staff at National Water Sports Centre at Holme Pierrepont noticed something unusual during a During a routine weed inspection of the Regatta Lake.

Staff swiftly alerted Nottinghamshire Police who sent down their specialist dive team to investigate and a Ford Capri believed to be around 30 years old was then pulled from the water.

DS Nick Sawdon said: “We turned up for a dive training day but as so often happens we got a call and it was an unusual one – a car in Home Pierrepont main water sports lake. I’ve been on the team since 1997 and never known a car go in there before.

“When we first found it in the gloom all we could say was that it was a large dark saloon. It was a surprise to find it was an old Ford Capri that was actually blue underneath all the growth on it.

“The recovery was quite a challenge so we had a pretty good work out for our training day. It was half full of sand so we had to use lifting bags and winches to recover it. We always rescue the fish that are left in car foot wells on recovery and this one gave us another surprise with a family of four very large eels.

“The daddy of them all was as big as my arm!”

How the Capri came to end up in the lake is a mystery. The car itself is a bit of a classic now and would be worth in the region of £15,000.

In the past the dive team have come across a number of other unusual items including medals which were reunited with their owner.

DS Sawdon said: “We’re still trying to find out why the car was there. I suspect it was stolen but it might have been there for so long that we’ll never know.

“The car’s registration plate shows it was registered in 1982. I joined the Police in 1988 so it may have been down there longer than my 26 years as an officer!”

Brian Taylor, Chair of the Holme Pierrepont Leisure Trust, said: “It’s amazing the things that people throw away! The Police were fantastic and we are pleased that it is out of the lake and no one else was involved.”