In Madison County, Illinois, a couple of buddies went off-roading in a new, lifted Chevy Silverado on what they thought was a frozen field. But the field was a pond, and now their truck and the backhoe they rented to extract it are both stuck in deep, frozen mud in an area that—come springtime—will be under up to seven feet of water, Fox 2 reports.
I myself have succumbed to the temptation of a big snowy field, four-wheel drive, and an entire vacation day to kill, so I get where these guys are coming from. Still, off-roading on someone else’s property without permission is not cool, and what’s even less cool is getting your rig stuck in a pond. What’s even less less cool is sinking the extraction vehicle, too (Again, I’ve been there).
Fox 2 says the property belongs to Chain of Rocks Recreation Corp., which uses the pond for water skiing practice. A representative of the group, Austin Opp, expressed to the news site his displeasure about the whole situation, saying:
This is the worst I’ve ever seen out here. Nobody’s usually dumb enough to go ahead and try to go out on the lake. And they did.
Ouch.
The truck owner told the news site that he yelled at his friend driving the truck to turn back, but just as the vehicle was near the shore, it fell down into the muck. The truck’s owner then rented a backhoe to yank the pickup out, but the heavy machinery ended up falling into an “unseen pocket of ice, sand, and mud,” and now the two vehicles sit stuck in two to three feet of frozen mud. And if they aren’t extracted by spring, the rigs could be under six to seven feet of water.
Fox 2, which says the two mudders could face trespassing charges, mentions that, in the past, illegal off-roading has sent some trucks to the impound lot. Who knows if a similar fate awaits that pretty lifted Silverado.
If I had to guess, the owners are probably less concerned with impounding, and more worried about water damage that could do a number on that truck if it’s not yanked out by spring. Water damage is no joke.