Big Catch In Luce’s Bayou

Just a couple miles from the Boggy Thicket, Luce’s Bayou makes it way to Lake Houston.  The bayou is a good place to fish for bass, crappie, catfish and – apparently – used cars.

Here’s the story reported last night by the local news:

Authorities attempted to pull three vehicles from the murky waters of Luce Bayou in Huffman Jan. 18 after receiving an alert from a fisherman.

“We [had] two cars and a pickup truck down there. They were found a few weeks ago by a bass fisherman who had a side sonar scanner in his boat,” said Houston Police Department Sgt. Billy Ray Wilburn.

Wilburn said the sophisticated equipment generated quality photographs of the submerged vehicles, which the fisherman then submitted to police.

Authorities suspect all three vehicles have been stolen. The suspicion was confirmed in at least two cases so far. Officials ran the license plate information of the first vehicle recovered by divers of the HPD Marine Enforcement Division and HPD Lake Patrol personnel, a silver 2003 GMC Sierra, and learned that the truck had been reported stolen in 2005.

“The insurance already paid off on that truck, which has probably been in the water for almost seven years,” Wilburn said. “Usually stolen cars are dumped in a wooded area and they’re fairly easy to recover. But if someone goes through so much trouble to dump them, there’s a chance they may have been used in more serious crimes.”

A second vehicle, a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am, was brand new when it was reported stolen in 1999. Police also managed to pull it from the bayou.

A third vehicle, a sedan of still unknown make and model, was buried too deeply in the mud to be recovered.

"It was stuck in mud almost to the roof of the car," Wilburn said. "It would be very expensive to dig it out, so it probably will remain there. Divers removed the license plate to find out more about the vehicle."

The three vehicles were found about 40 feet off the bayou’s north bank, in 18-21 feet of water, less than half a mile east of FM 2100. As of Wednesday afternoon, police had found no evidence that any other kind of foul play associated with the theft of the vehicles

A photographer caught video of authorities hauling the truck out of the bayou.  It seems amazing to me, but it appears the tires were still inflated after nearly eight years under water.