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Back from watery grave: car stolen in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine in France, Wire Headlines

Back from watery grave: car stolen in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine in France

This undated photo released on Thursday, Aug. 31, two thousand seventeen by Gendarmerie Nationale shows a Peugeot one hundred four recovered this week in France’s Champagne country, thirty eight years after it was stolen. Teeming with crayfish, the car was in remarkably good form and is expected to be reunited soon with its original proprietor. In a Facebook posting, police said the pond holder alerted officers in Chalons-en-Champagne, one hundred sixty kilometers (100 miles) east of Paris, on Monday about the discovery. The car became visible because drought dropped the water level.(Gendarmerie Nationale via AP)

A Peugeot 104, which was recovered this week thirty eight years after it was stolen, is stored in a garage in Chalons-en-Champagne, eastern France, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. A blue Peugeot one hundred four stolen in the heart of France’s Champagne country in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine is being reunited with its proprietor – thirty eight years later – after French police pulled it, in remarkably good form but teeming with crayfish, from a murky swamp. (AP Photo/Chris den Hond)

• Chris den Hond

French mechanic Franck Menard stands next to a Peugeot one hundred four which was recovered this week thirty eight years after it was stolen, in Chalons-en-Champagne, eastern France, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. A blue Peugeot one hundred four stolen in the heart of France’s Champagne country in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine is being reunited with its possessor – thirty eight years later – after French police pulled it, in remarkably good form but teeming with crayfish, from a murky swamp. (AP Photo/Chris den Hond)

• Chris den Hond

An interior view of a Peugeot 104, which was recovered this week thirty eight years after it was stolen, stored in a garage in Chalons-en-Champagne, eastern France, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. A blue Peugeot one hundred four stolen in the heart of France’s Champagne country in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine is being reunited with its holder – thirty eight years later – after French police pulled it, in remarkably good form but teeming with crayfish, from a murky swamp. (AP Photo/Chris den Hond)

• Chris den Hond

PARIS (AP) — It’s the car coming back from a watery grave.

A blue Peugeot one hundred four stolen in the heart of France’s Champagne country in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine is being reunited with its proprietor — thirty eight years later — after French police pulled it, in remarkably good form but crawling with crayfish, from a murky swamp.

In a Facebook posting, police said the pond holder alerted officers in Chalons-en-Champagne, one hundred sixty kilometers (100 miles) east of Paris, on Monday about the discovery. The car became visible because drought dropped the water level.

After police divers checked there wasn’t a corpse inwards, the long-lost vehicle was towed onto dry land.

“lt still looks like a 104. It’s still blue and there is still chrome on the bumpers. It’s surprising,” Franck Menard, a mechanic who hauled it back to the local garage where he works, said in a phone interview. “It’s relatively well preserved given that it spent so long in the water.”

“The seats are still in good condition, beige,” he added.

Police said the compact four-door hatchback — as much a feature of its time as flared pants and disco — was four years old and on its third possessor when it was proclaimed stolen in the Champagne town of Reims in 1979. Too old to figure in computer databases, investigators dusted off paper archives to find the proprietor, who lives in the Reims area.

In their Facebook posting, headlined “Cold Case,” police said plans are afoot to reunite car and possessor in the next few days.

Menard said that because it was announced stolen, the car technically now belongs to the proprietor’s insurer.

Still, he is expecting the proprietor to drop by his garage “to come and see the car for nostalgia’s sake.”

The possessor was stunned when officers tracked her down via family and neighbors, said Lt. Col. Pierre-Damien Igau, of the gendarmerie in Chalons-en-Champagne.

“She was astonished that we contacted her because even for her this was very ancient history,” he said. “She appeared fairly moved by the fact that we had found her car so long after the fact and especially that we had made the effort to contact her.”

Menard said he doesn’t expect the little Peugeot will ever run again, because the rusty engine block was muddied up.

But he said they scooped up the crayfish that had been living inwards and liberated them into a tunnel.

“At least they get a 2nd life,” he said.

Chris den Hond in Chalons-en-Champagne contributed to this report.

Copyright two thousand seventeen The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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