Car pulled from creek

January 20, 2003|by GREGORY T. SIMMONS

A car that police recovered from Antietam Creek on Friday had been reported stolen Thursday night, Maryland State Police said.

Police pulled the car - a 1989 Nissan Maxima with Maryland license tags JXX 109 - from the creek near the 300 block of North High Street about 12:30 p.m. after receiving a report of tire tracks running into the creek, police said.

The tracks were spotted by Jim Waugh of Funkstown in his backyard about 9 a.m. Friday. The tracks ran through his yard, down an embankment and into Antietam Creek.

Waugh called police, who investigated what then looked like an accident and pulled the car from the creek. Members of the state police dive team, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and workers from the Hagerstown Waste Water Treatment Plant assisted in the vehicle recovery.

Hagerstown City Police later notified state police at the Hagerstown barrack that they were looking for the car, state police said.

Hagerstown Police Detective Shane Blankenship said the car was stolen sometime between 7 p.m. Thursday and 11:50 a.m. Friday from the unit block of East Washington Street.

Divers did not find any bodies in the car, said Maryland State Police lead investigator Phillip Martin. All four of the car's windows had been rolled down before police found it.

Police found a set of footprints in the snow at the creek bank leading away from the car, Martin said.

The car had settled under water about 100 feet downstream from where it entered, said Maryland State Police 1st Sgt. Richard Narron, a police diver. Wearing protective gear, Narron searched the car while it was still submerged in the 33-degree Fahrenheit water.

Police searched the car further at the Hagerstown barrack and confirmed there were no occupants, Martin said.

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