Local law enforcement agencies have successfully recovered a pickup truck that was discovered submerged in the Pauls Valley City Lake last week.
The Pauls Valley Police Department, working with the Chickasaw Lighthorse Police dive team and a local wrecker service, pulled the pickup from the water just before 1 p.m. March 13, after spending most of the morning trying to map out a plan for the recovery and safely attach a winch cable and chain to the vehicle.
Pauls Valley Police Chief Don May said the pickup in the water was reported to PVPD March 10 by a fisherman using a sophisticated depth finder at the Pauls Valley City Lake. The man said he had located what he thought to be a vehicle in the water on the south end of the lake, near East County Road 1550.
The Chickasaw Lighthorse Police dive team was called in to help investigate the object. Visibility in the lake was extremely poor, but the dive team was able to confirm it was a pickup truck in the lake, according to May, who also said authorities had no reason to believe there was anyone in the vehicle.
“It was sunk down in the mud pretty good, so we think it had probably been there for a while,” May said.
Attempts to pull the vehicle from the lake March 10 failed, and the dive team made plans to return later in the week and try again with sturdier cables and chains.
Once the vehicle was recovered, authorities were able to confirm there were no occupants inside what turned out to be a late 1990s or early 2000 model Dodge pickup.
The Pauls Valley Police Department said Wednesday they are waiting on additional information from insurance companies, as they continue to work to confirm details regarding who owns the pickup and how it ended up in the lake.
