Back from watery grave: car stolen in 1979, owner, reuniting

PARIS » It’s the car coming back from a watery grave.

A blue Peugeot 104 stolen in the heart of France’s Champagne country in 1979 is being reunited with its owner — 38 years later — after French police pulled it, in surprisingly good shape but crawling with crayfish, from a murky swamp.

In a Facebook posting, police said the pond owner alerted officers in Chalons-en-Champagne, 100 miles east of Paris, about the discovery. The car became visible because drought dropped the water level.

After police divers checked there wasn’t a corpse inside, 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. “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 was declared 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 owner.

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

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 inside and freed them into a canal.

A Peugeot 104 recovered last week in France’s Champagne country, 38 years after it was stolen. Teeming with crayfish, the car was in surprisingly good shape and is expected to be reunited soon with its original owner.