Sheriff's Divers Recover 13 Stolen Vehicles from California Aqueduct

dredging car truck
Heavy equipment pulls submerged vehicles from the California Aqueduct, June 2021.

 Sheriff’s deputies pulled 15 cars out of the California Aqueduct last week with almost all of them having been reported stolen.

Members of both the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Dive Team and the San Bernardino County Auto Theft Task Force, or SANCATT, conducted the operation on Friday.

The vehicles were fished “from the bottom of 14 miles” of the 444-mile long aqueduct near Highway 395, sheriff’s officials said.

Thirteen vehicles were confirmed stolen, one was in the water as the result of a crash, and another was “stripped and has not yet been identified,” authorities said.

SANCATT is a countywide task force comprised of several agencies including the California Highway Patrol, DMV and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Read the full article. Victorville Daily Press, Martin Estacio, June 22, 2021

NICB assisted the investigation.