Summary:
- Dozens of vehicles, believed to have been stolen or abandoned, have been found submerged in a Doral lake.
- The cars are estimated to have been in the lake for decades, and authorities suspect they could be linked to multiple past crimes.
- Law enforcement agencies, including Miami Dade police and Doral police departments, along with fire rescue teams, collaborated to retrieve several vehicles from the lake.
- The submerged vehicles are expected to provide crucial evidence for ongoing investigations, potentially leading to the closure of long-standing unsolved cases.
- Authorities plan to use VIN numbers to identify the vehicles and gather information about their history and ownership.
Tonight police are working to piece together how dozens of vehicles ended up at the bottom of a murky lake in Doral. Investigators believe the cars have been there for decades and could be tied to multiple crimes. CBS News Miami's Anna McAllister is in Doral with what we've learned.
Looking at this lake behind me, it's hard to believe, but Miami Dade police say there are at least 20 cars in the water and behind every car is a story. Decades in the making. A blast from the past pulled out of a Doral Lake by a tow truck. Suspended in the air, according to police.
This vintage car is believed to be one of many submerged in this body of water. We received information from a citizen on Sunday that apparently he was diving out here and he observed what appeared to be several dozen vehicles that have been dumped in this lake. Miami Dade and Doral police departments, along with Miami Dade fire rescue, pulled out at least four vehicles from this lake on 13th Terrace and Northwest 90th Avenue on Tuesday. They seem to all be vehicles that have been submerged for quite some time. The first two vehicles that were pulled up have been submerged for over 20 years. Divers work tirelessly to locate the cars sitting at the bottom of the lake. Officials say many of these vehicles are stolen or potentially linked to fraud cases and say the area was a hotspot for dumping cars.
This area was more industrial in terms of vacant land that was built out to what you see now. Police will now use the VIN numbers to determine how many of these vehicles were being dumped in the lake. They will now be able to be submerged in each vehicle as a starting point for their investigations. Law enforcement will now go back and run those VIN numbers and it will be very interesting to see how many unsolved crimes will now be able to be closed out because of now the recovery of these individual vehicles. Police say so far there's no indication that any of the cars that were pulled from the lake are being pulled from the water. For now reporting from Darrell, Adam McAllister, CBS News Miami.
The discovery of numerous stolen and abandoned vehicles submerged in a Doral lake has sparked a renewed effort by law enforcement to investigate their origins and potential ties to past crimes.