WATCH: Michigan Man Jumps Into Retention Pond to Save Guns from Sinking Car

Authors Current Events S.H. Blannelberry This Week

How much do you love your guns? Enough to jump into a frigid retention pond to save them from a sinking car?  

Well, we know how a Michigan man from Oakland County would answer those questions.  He wasted no time entering the cold waters to free his firearms from the murky depths when his 2004 Saturn made an unexpected plunge Saturday afternoon. 

Local media reports that the 40-year-old gun owner was at the Huron Valley Gun Range when the incident occurred.  Apparently, while he was loading his firearms into the trunk of his car, the car began rolling forward, a total of about 15 feet, before it splashed into the pond. 

It’s not clear whether he got all his guns, ammo and range gear out in time.  But a dive team did recover the vehicle, approximately 12 feet from the shoreline in 7 feet of water.  It was totally submerged when they initially arrived.

What caused the car to travel into the pond?   

MI Headlines reported that the Saturn was “remotely started and equipped with manual transmission.”  Maybe the car shifted into neutral, somehow, and gravity did the rest.  

Whatever the case may be the good news is that no one was injured. 

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  • Steve November 24, 2019, 7:36 pm

    About the video footage… You’ll notice two things: the panning/zooming and the pixelation.
    It was very possibly security footage initially. But the video accompanying this article was taken by a phone watching the footage on another screen.

  • Bayou Ogre November 22, 2019, 11:18 am

    This video has a major red flag. Why was this man being videoed?

    • S.H. Blannelberry November 22, 2019, 11:25 am

      It was security footage, according to local media.

      • Robert Messmer November 22, 2019, 1:01 pm

        Security footage? Excellent focus and it panned to the right to continue filming. We’ve seen security footage from banks and jewelry stores that didn’t look as good.

        • S.H. Blannelberry November 22, 2019, 1:01 pm

          LOL.

  • Smells FIshyToMe November 22, 2019, 11:07 am

    WHY was the person filming this guy leaving the club? A guy walking to a car carrying a bag is not a strange or interesting sight at a range. This had to be premediated. Hopefully, it will get figured out. I betting on the insurance angle. That and being upsidedown on his car loan.

  • AKB November 22, 2019, 10:02 am

    Insurance fraud, and the guy filming is an accomplice. Isn’t it amazing that the entire incident is so nicely filmed? Why was this man even being filmed in the first place? Because they planned it to happen, that’s why.

    • Doug November 22, 2019, 11:13 am

      Yup, you caught him! (NOT)

      He supposedly according to you committed “insurance fraud” to total out his >$500 Saturn that was apparently driveable up to that point..(meaning he isn’t going to get shat for what was a usable car!) And then risked his life to try and save the stuff he had in the trunk? WTH? Come on man… There are a lot easier ways to LOOSE money then committing a felony for nothing.

      You know that makes absolutely no sense what so ever.. Right?

      • AKB November 22, 2019, 2:36 pm

        Actually, depending on year, model, mileage, and condition his car could possibly have been worth as much as $4-6k. Lots of fraud has been committed for far less money than that, and for a variety of different reasons. Just because it’s a Saturn doesn’t mean it was only worth >$500.
        I don’t know the man, his car or his motives but I’m not buying it was an “accident”. Too many red flags here, and I’m not going to point them all out if you can’t see them. But hey, you say it’s legit, so I guess it’s gotta be.

        • Doug November 22, 2019, 8:15 pm

          The point is a 12++ year old stripy (we know it’s a stripped down model Saturn coupe by the 5 speed it had) Saturn is not worth 4-6 grand, it’s worth less then $500 like I said in my last comment.

          And I’m not sure if you even read the words that accompanied this video before claiming this guy was a THIEF, but the artical clearly states that the footage was taken from a SECURITY CAMERA installed in the parking lot of this shooting range. I say the footage was more then likely edited to zoom in on what happen, which is easy to do if you’ve ever used any type of video editor software.
          Why even go there accusing people of stuff if you obviously don’t know anything about the situation, and didn’t even take the time to read the accompanying artical?!

          Again people don’t risk their lives by first trying to stop his vehicle, then diving in to get the stuff out of their trunk if it was insurance fraud like you claimed now twice here. And then again the value simply is not there like you now claim.

  • Willy November 22, 2019, 6:46 am

    A manual transmission car can not be remotely started, for obvious reasons. If it was, the guy rigged it. And the vehicle would not jump from being in gear, to neutral, which would cause the car to start rolling. That makes no sense at all. How about the parking brake? That surely was not on.

    • NoNameNeeded November 22, 2019, 7:57 am

      MT cars can absolutely be remotely started. The typical setup includes a solenoid to bypass the clutch safety switch. The car should be in neutral before hitting the remote start, and I’m guessing that’s what happened with this one. Transmission in neutral, forgot to set parking brake, car rolls forward as the owner is doing stuff in the trunk.

    • Chris January 31, 2021, 12:49 pm

      I used to own an automatic 2001 Saturn and never really used the parking brake unless I was working on it. However, I ended up replacing the parking brake as it rusted to the point it failed and stopped engaging around 2011. Winters up North are hell on cars with the immense amount of salt mixed in with the sand that it is very possible this is what happened to the guy’s car.

      Parts fail on cars every day for no reason but having owned a Saturn I know the parking brake will fail due to rust, it’s just a matter of time and it looks like his car picked a bad spot to do it. Not everything is a conspiracy theory or someone trying to commit fraud, as the movie Forrest Gump says, “Shit happens”.

      If you would have just gone to Google and typed in “manual transmission remote start” you would have immediately seen numerous sites about remote starters that work with manual transmissions that do not need to be “rigged”. I guess you were too busy doing other things than to take 10 seconds to check if you were going to make a fool out of yourself at your complete incompetence at the innovations in technology that are constantly changing every day.

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