VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Rough waters at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront prevented a diving team from retrieving the car that drove off a fishing pier into the ocean Saturday morning.
Police had told News 3 Sunday morning they had a plan in place. However, after efforts from Crofton Diving and Salvage had failed, they said they had to call the recovery off, citing the conditions.
Virginia Beach officer Jude Brenya spoke with News 3 and said that they needed to establish another plan to get the car out of the water.
"We do know where the vehicle is at," said Brenya. "It's still stationary in the last location that we checked, so we are going to keep monitoring it. We are going to go back [to] the planning board and try to see when we can come back out."
The Virginia Beach Police Department says the plan is to come back later this week. No specific date was established.
As the recovery efforts continue, the community remains in shock following the incident. Employees at Oceanfront businesses were stunned Saturday morning when they came to work to hear what had happened.
“My first reaction was I was feeling very surprised and then very sad," said Manon Scholl, who works at Ocean Eddie’s on the pier.
She said she was woken up Saturday morning by a phone call from a friend telling her what happened.
Virginia Beach
Oceanfront community stunned after car plunges off fishing Pier
“I was really confused. I was like, 'What do you mean somebody drove off the pier?' That’s obviously very hard," said Scholl.
The incident was captured on video by Kaylynn Crawford, who could be heard in the video reacting to the scene playing out in front of her.
Police have yet to confirm any information about the vehicle and any occupants.
We'll keep you updated as we learn more.
