30-Year-Old Car Recovered From Woodbury Lake: Police

WOODBURY, MN — A station wagon was recovered from Colby Lake in Woodbury on Saturday, police said.

The Pontiac Safari 6000 station wagon — a model last manufactured in 1991 — was found Thursday after the city's parks and recreation department hired a company to assess the lake to get rid of weeds, police said. While in a rowboat conducting the assessment, the inspector saw the roof of the car, located on the east side of the lake about 30-50 feet from shore, police said.

Because the lake is surrounded by park paths, officials had to figure out the best way to recover the car, police said.

Police Cmdr. John Altman said he originally marked the location of the car on Apple Maps, but transferred the pin to an aerial photo of the lake from April 2021. Much to his surprise, the car was visible in the photo, he said.

The car had been visible in aerial photos and GIS dating back to 2006, Altman said.

On Saturday, a dive team from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office along with Twin Cities Transport and Recovery worked to remove the car from the lake, police said.

The Pontiac Safari 6000 station wagon originally was red, police said, but the slime, dirt and algae covered the car in dark gray muck.

The windows were down in the car, which also contained a few fish, Altman said. The car did not have license plates, and the slime and sludge prevented officials from finding the vehicle identification number, police said.

Woodbury police asked the National Insurance Crime Bureau to help locate the VIN, which will help find the car's owner, police said.

But how did the car get into the lake, and how was it there for so long? Officials aren't sure how the car got into the water, but police say the car likely went undiscovered for so long due to the lack of swimming, canoeing and kayaking on the lake.

"Given the year of the car and its condition, there’s a chance it was in the lake before the homes were built on the East side of Colby Lake in the 1990s," Altman said.

Possible theories include the car being driven on the lake in the winter and falling through, or going into the lake during the summer months, floating and making the quarter turn to its resting point, Altman said.

Investigators learned that the car had been stolen in 1994 in Inver Grove Heights.

"The case remains a mystery at this point, and we’re hopeful that the NICB will be able to help with some information," Altman said.