By Tiffany Williams –
In Leicester, MA, a routine day of fishing turned into the discovery of a vehicle that had apparently been sitting underwater for more than four decades.
Leicester Police said they were informed on Monday, April 13, 2026, that a fisherman had seen what appeared to be a truck submerged in Rochdale Pond using a fish finder. With help from the Leicester Fire Department and the District Seven Dive Team, that report was confirmed.
What investigators found was not just a vehicle in the water, but a piece of unresolved history.
According to police, information gathered from inside the vehicle allowed officers to identify it as a 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit truck. Detectives were then able to identify the original owner and determine that the truck had been reported stolen in 1982.
That is the kind of discovery that instantly raises questions. How did a stolen truck end up at the bottom of a pond? How long had it been there? And why was it only being found now, more than 40 years later, by a fisherman scanning the water below?
On Wednesday, April 15, 2026, the truck was removed from Rochdale Pond with assistance from the Massachusetts State Police Dive Team, the Leicester Highway Department, and the Leicester Fire Department.
After the vehicle was pulled from the pond, Leicester Police confirmed that nothing of interest was found inside.
That finding brings one layer of closure, but the discovery still stands as a striking one. A truck reported stolen in 1982, sitting submerged in a local pond for decades, unnoticed until modern sonar technology put it back on law enforcement’s radar.
Police thanked the agencies involved in the recovery effort, which required coordination between local fire personnel, dive teams, highway crews, and state police resources.
What began as a fisherman spotting an unusual image on a fish finder ended with Leicester police recovering a stolen vehicle lost to time, buried underwater since the early 1980s.