Mysteries surround a mud-soaked Waukegan city-owned 1974 Ford LTD found at the bottom of the Bevier Park Pond by divers removing sediment to restore the body of water, but few answers are yet known.
Divers employed by the Waukegan Park District since early August spotted the sedan covered in sediment halfway to its roof on Sept. 10 as they continue to methodically remove the dregs from the Bevier Park Pond.
Deputy Police Chief Scott Chastain said that during his 31 years with the department, he has never seen a long-abandoned vehicle like this pulled from the water. The investigation showed there was no evidence of anyone inside.
Quincy Bejster, the Park District’s director of parks, said he got a call from the divers and went to the park. It was not long before the police and Waukegan Fire Department arrived. They soothed his worst fears.
“The police checked the trunk and found no one there,” he said. “They checked the front and then the back, and it was cleared. There was no one there.”
Bejster said the divers told him the car was fully submerged. It was not visible from the surface. About 40% done with the project scheduled for completion by the end of October, the car was northwest of the pond’s island. The divers handled the removal of the car from the water.
“The divers continued to remove sediment away until they could get a good connection,” he said. “It was as very slow process. The strap broke once, but they were able to reconnect it and pull it from the water.”
Still trying to learn more about the vehicle, Chastain said the department was able to glean from a partial Vehicle Identification Number the car was a 1974 Ford LTD. The license plates had a 1978 sticker on them, so the sedan may have been in the pond since then.
Since the license plates had an M on them, Chastain said they were issued to a municipality by the Illinois Secretary of State. Since there was a city of Waukegan seal on the door, it was owned by the city and likely used by a municipal worker.
“I ran the plates, and it came back no record,” Chastain said. “If you don’t renew the plate, the number is purged by the secretary of state. It’s now issued to a different village nowhere near here. They recycled the number.”
While in the late 1970s the city’s public works department did not have the systems it does today. Chastain said these days a car cannot go missing without warning signs sprouting quickly thanks to modern electronic record-keeping.
“Public works knows every car has to be turned in for servicing after a certain time or number of miles,” Chastain said. “If it isn’t, there would be a red flag. They’re always doing servicing.”
Todd Zupec, the fire marshal for the fire department, was quickly called to the scene. He said more than half the vehicle was submerged in silt. Once the car was out of the pond, the firefighters went to work.
“There was nobody or nothing inside of it,” he said. “We were very relieved no one was inside. I was pretty surprised there was a vehicle in the water that long.”
“It was just like you see it in the movies or TV,” Bejster said.
The Park District began a project to remove the sediment from the Bevier Park Pond in early August. Bejster said when the pond was created in 1969, it was 100% water with no dirt residue. Before the removal began, it was 39% sediment and 61% water.
As the divers continue to remove the sediment using a large suction device, it is being sent through tubing inserted in a storm sewer to a nearby park where it will dry and become topsoil for a pollinator prairie.
