Fraud May Be Reason for Cars in River

DETROIT (WJBK) - It appears insurance fraud could be behind more than a dozen cars found submerged in the Detroit River. Now, police say many more vehicles may still be in the water, some reported stolen in the 1980s.

Day two of fishing using SONAR as bait resulted in even more abandoned vehicles being found. At first, it was thought there were only 15 vehicles at the bottom of the Detroit River, but investigators are saying there could be more.

"There could be some on top of others or there could be one cluster of three cars, but it's quite a few," said Dave Jakeway of the Detroit Police.

It's now believed that between 18 and 25 cars could be in the river, most dating back to the early 1980s and seeing daylight for the first time in more than 25 years.

"We have an older, seventies Chevy pickup we pulled up yesterday that's kind of in bad shape," Jakeway said.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Chris Charon, a fraud investigator with Lakeside Investigations.

With so many vehicles submerged in the water, Detroit Police think people were trying to collect cash on the cars by reporting them stolen and then dumping them in the river.

AAA says the number of reported thefts is up as the economy takes a dip. So far, more than 1,000 such claims have been reported in Michigan.

"People just can't handle the bill or they get inflated receipts for stuff that they didn't get and then they report it stolen and they collect from the insurance companies," Charon said.

"Normal car thieves don't throw cars in the water. People looking to fraud the insurance company or other type of monetary gain, they usually put them in the water (or) burn them, but our normal car thieves normally don't dispose of them this way," Jakeway said.