Austin police recovered five stolen vehicles Thursday in the depths of Lady Bird Lake in East Austin.
DPS was patrolling the lake near Festival Beach when boat sonar picked up images of the vehicles.
APD dive team members came to the lake and searched for the vehicles underwater.
An Austin auto theft detective shot cell phone video of a tow truck pulling a newer model convertible white Ford Mustang out of the water. It was covered in silt and full of water.
"It's cliche. It's something you hear about in the movies -- people dumping cars in the lake; but it's obviously something real that does occur. We didn't expect to pull five stolen vehicles from the lake today," said auto theft detective Troy Reeves.
Detectives did not release the makes and models of the other four vehicles, but did release the years the vehicles were reported stolen.
The oldest case was in 1996, then 2002, 2007, 2008. The most recent case was reported this year.
Detectives say they have more work to do, and want to find out if someone was trying to collect insurance money by dumping the vehicles.
