Toyota At The Bottom Of Lake For 13 Years Looks Surprisingly Good

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If you’ve ever stared out at a lake or river, you’ve probably wondered what kind of trash and treasure is lurking beneath the surface. A body of water can hold all kinds of secrets, from lost keychains to cars. Or an entire pickup truck that sat on the bottom for over 13 years.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was contacted today by a local fisherman who had identified a sunken object using his fish finder. From the surface of the Hughes Landing Lagoon, the sonar device revealed what turned out to be a second-gen Toyota Tundra sitting on the bottom of the fake manmade lake.

The truck was recovered with the aid of The Woodlands Fire Department and a dive team from Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Divers attached floatation devices to the truck to bring it to the surface, removing it from the lake via a boat ramp.

https://www.facebook.com/MCTXSheriff/posts/pfbid0Mr3YqpR8R1P76NPAqH754TwYee2WTXWd1FAHnTx93eVosVp9TbG3zeEqtkz7uRVpl

Law enforcement later identified the vehicle as one stolen from Harris County in 2010. The second-generation Toyota Tundra may have been sitting on the bottom of the lake for as long as 13 years, though that is not confirmed. There’s a chance the vehicle may have entered the lake at some later date, after the initial theft occurred.

Speaking to The Autopian, The Woodlands Fire Department filled us in on the details of the recovery. “There were power cables for a large fountain that were across the truck, and we had to spend some extra time moving them,” explained the spokesperson. The Tundra had also attracted some wildlife in the meantime, too. “Three fish were swimming in the spare tire when we removed the vehicle,” said the spokesperson, who advised us that they were successfully re-homed. The vehicle was confirmed as one stolen in October 2010, with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office to follow up with the owner of the vehicle.

The state of the truck is quite something after its extended stay at the bottom of the lake. The hood in particular was covered in some kind of build-up, either mud or underwater plant growth. All four tires were flat, and the paint appears dull and spattered with organic material. And yet, hilariously, some parts of the truck look almost factory-fresh.

https://www.facebook.com/TheWoodlandsFireDepartment/posts/pfbid02JR4buLPbVYmAkPVazDBmHwX2V868TSgXuYby7LBfUR6uf9JKvoPL6TrsERFZ2LjKl

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Can you make out a truck in the sonar image?
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Did you know Jamie Hyneman used to work in salvage? He’s not in this picture, though, I don’t think.

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“That’ll buff out”—your uncle, probably.

The front bumper is shiny and clean, looking like it just needs a quick wipedown. The steel wheels, at least where they’re not covered in mud, look good too. There appears to be some minor damage to the front grille, which is pushed back a bit on one side, which we could theorize happened as the truck hit the water at some speed. Really, though, that’s pure speculation.

Ultimately, though, despite Toyota’s legendary reliability, it’s probably not a runner. Submersion is a great way to ruin all the various electronic modules that run a vehicle. Beyond that, the engine would have been filled with water, along with the fuel tank, and the interior is probably best not spoken about further.

As goes the old saying, the worst day fishing is still better than the best day working. All the more so if you happen to fish up a whole Toyota, getting yourself a great story to tell in the process.

Image credits: Woodlands Fire Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office

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91 thoughts on “Toyota At The Bottom Of Lake For 13 Years Looks Surprisingly Good”

  2. I’m impressed they were able to get the truck out so intact, usually salvage operations like this end up causing a lot of body damage in the extraction process

  5. That’s great about the fish being successfully re-homed.
    Lakes can be real treasure troves, as seen with this 1957 VW Samba 23-window that was driven out on the ice to be sunk in a lake in Norway around 1973 or ’74 and salvaged in 2009; it was surprisingly well preserved and, after a new engine was installed, was actually driveable virtually as it was when pulled out of the lake:
    https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=620308
    https://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/67766
    Plus, that Samba had one of the best color schemes ever offered for air-cooled VWs: Chestnut Brown and Sealing Wax Red.

  9. I’m curious how they managed to get far enough into the fake manmade lake that it was undiscovered for so long. If I tried something like this, I would’ve jumped out at the last minute, done some sort of heroic, criminal genius roll, and then watched as the truck gurgled a bit and settled in 4 feet of water

    2. That really depends on the overall depth of the lake and how quickly it drops off from shore, any currents (obviously basically none in a lake like this), and momentum of the vehicle when it went in.

      It would seem in this case, the first two are “at least 10 feet” and “pretty freaking fast”.

      It varies depending on the clarity of water, but typically 10 feet is needed to conceal a pickup or SUV. Also from watching a lot of recovery videos, another key to “undiscovered for so long” is actually to have it sink just past and to the side of the ramp. It seems that fishermen almost never put out their sonar until they’re in the area of the lake they intend to fish. As long as you’re not creating an immediate obstruction to the ramp itself, it’s likely going to go undisturbed.

  10. Some of the most interesting (to me, at least) human-interest stories I’ve found recently involve volunteers that pick up cold cases and go dive in bodies of water nearby to see if they can find the cars and missing persons linked to those cars.

    There are entire groups of divers that will just sign up to swim in a lake to see if there’s a missing car there. Its fascinating

  14. It can’t have been under water that long, they only replaced that generation of Tundra a couple years back. Plus, those came out when I was 22, and I’m not…

    Wait, ohh.

  15. I hope that it goes to someone who can at least *try* to restore it. I want to know what parts still work after this. Consider this a continuation of the indestructible Hilux

    2. This. It would make an incredible youtube series if nothing else. Is it financially worth it? Almost certainly not. Is it worth it as a source of content? You freaking bet it is.

  16. Valentine’s Day 2011. Car thief and girlfriend trying out the Toyota cargo bed security restraints. Vehicle starts rolling toward the fake manmade lake…

  18. “the bottom of the fake manmade lake”

    What, plastic fake? Decorative fake?

    Is this some sort of natural lake that some nuckleheads made to look like a manmade lake? Why would they put a truck at the bottom of it?

    3. Fake manmade lake is so ominously redundant… If it’s a lake, it’s a real lake, manmade or otherwise. A non-manmade real lake is a natural lake. Fake manmade lake implies it was made by something other than mankind, with the intent to imitate a manmade lake, yet is a deception. And that’s a terrifying concept…

      Ignore the sirens of the unnatural lake, lest ye be lured into driving your Toyota Tundra into its murky depths, never to be seen again to go viral on the internet when discovered 13 years later.

    4. Yeah, always thought it was silly when in the past I heard the line “There’s only 1 natural lake in TX”
      Found this clip:
      “But is Caddo a natural lake? Well, if you take your goggles off and don’t look too closely, you can maybe sort of see it that way. But even if we do categorize it as a natural lake, it would not, contrary to popular lore, be Texas’s only one. The truth is that Texas has hundreds of natural lakes, most of which are, unlike Caddo, of the little oxbow variety, remnants of rivers that have shifted course over time.”

  21. I know I could probably answer this myself with a quick Google search, but I don’t have that kind of time. I’m supposed to be working. But in what state is this Montgomery county?

        1. No I think 43 is in Dallas and their ranch is somewhere by Waco. Bush 41 lived in the west Houston area and had an office in 10000 Memorial Dr. I know because I was walking out of that building one day and every damn motorcycle and suv in HPD’s fleet came rolling into the parking area blocking every possible exit then 3 or 4 black SUVs came in and a whole bunch of suits with dark sunglasses poured out and surrounded somebody who they escorted into the building. I caught a brief glimpse of 41 as he was walking up the stairs.

  22. For a second there I thought “that could be David Tracy’s next project”, but then I realized that this being a Toyota he would not be intersted – hardly disintegrated and too easy to get it back in running condition.

    1. He just bought Jason a $500 Toyota though… This could very well be another reliable truck he could fix up so Jason has more definitely reliable and rational and totally not a bad idea vehicles.

    2. Looks better than the Miss Belvedere that came out of a time capsule here in Tulsa back in 2007.

      Turns out pageant winners don’t hold up that well buried in a sealed capsule for 40 years. Whoda thunk?

    3. Yeah, what a shitshow that was, car would have been better off up on blocks under a tarp at the edge of the public works yard for 50 years. It was all just a publicity stunt, a local swimming pool company donated the vault and gunited it, just to market their pools, guarantee no engineer with relevant experience was at all involved in making sure any of it was going to be watertight for 50 years

      1. “The vault was opened on June 14, 2007, by a team of local volunteers. They were appalled to find the car sitting in nearly 2,000 gallons (7,600 liters) of standing water that reached 4 feet (1.2 m) high. While the original builders did their best to create a lasting structure, it was not airtight, which allowed water to seep in when the area was flooded due to a construction accident back in the mid-1970s.”

        https://www.autoevolution.com/news/the-story-of-miss-belvedere-a-car-buried-for-50-years-in-front-of-a-courthouse-170538.html

        Filled with water in the mid 1970s and still holding water 35 years later. Sounds to me like that pool company built what they knew:
        A swimming pool.

    4. Honestly though, I’m surprised that car held up as well as it did considering the circumstances. It’ll still never run again and the metal is now too thin for the car to be roadworthy, but it’s all still there and after several years of careful cleaning and de-rusting, it now sits in a museum and looks impressively intact if a little grungy.

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